- Title: IRAQ: U.S. FORCES CONTINUE BOMBARDMENT OF NAJAF, LATEST.
- Date: 18th August 2004
- Summary: (W7) NAJAF, IRAQ (AUGUST 17, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: EMPTY STREET, AUDIO GUNFIRE 0.11 2. LV: IMAM ALI MOSQUE (OUT OF FOCUS) 0.16 3. LV/ZOOM IN/GV: FLAMES 0.31 4. LV: VARIOUS OF TRACER FIRE, AUDIO GUNFIRE, SMOKE 1.12 5. GV/LV: WIDE OF SCENE, AUDIO OF GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS (3 SHOTS) 1.43 6. GV: EMPTY STREE
- Embargoed: 2nd September 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NAJAF, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA62CQ3TTJ1CU0Q69NHESEL9MZ4
- Story Text: U.S. forces continue their bombardment of Najaf as
radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr refuses meet Iraqi
delegation.
U.S. forces continued their bombardment of Najaf
early on Wednesday (August 18), firing on militia positions
near the country's holiest Islamic sites.
Meanwhile radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Tuesday
(August 17) refused to meet an Iraqi peace delegation
because of "American aggression" as U.S. troops pounded
militia positions in Najaf near the country's holiest
Islamic sites.
The failure to hold face-to-face talks raises the
possibility of a U.S.-led offensive to crush Sadr's Mehdi
Army in the city, scene of 13 days of fierce fighting that
has killed hundreds.
Braving U.S. bombardment and militia sniper fire, the
group of eight political and religious leaders drove to
al-Sadr's office seeking to end a rebellion in the holy
city and other parts of Iraq.
A Sadr aide told reporters accompanying the delegation
that Sadr refused to meet them "because of continued
aggression by the Americans".
Another aide in Baghdad, Sheikh Mahmoud al-Soudani,
said he declined to meet them due to security reasons and
heavy shelling in Najaf.
The delegation had met Sadr's top aides and waited for
the young cleric for three hours at the city's holiest
shrine, the Imam Ali Mosque, where many of Sadr's
militiamen are holed up.
There were choatic scenes when the delegation arrived
inside the Imam Ali shrine.
More than 1,000 young men shouted, beat their chests,
raised their fists in the air and chanted "long live
Moqtada". Explosions and gunfire from the nearby vast
cemetery could be heard.
After the snub the group drove to the governor's
headquarters as fighting raged in the cemetery, where U.S.
gunship helicopters fired on rebels who responded by firing
mortars and machine guns at U.S. and Iraqi government
forces. Witnesses said they later returned to Baghdad.
The delegation flew in on U.S. Black Hawk helicopters
from a meeting in Baghdad where 1,300 delegates sought to
select an interim national assembly to oversee the
government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi needs to quell the
Shi'ite rebellion that has hit eight central and southern
cities and undermined his authority just seven weeks after
he took over from U.S.-led occupiers.
But he is walking a dangerous tightrope, with passions
in the majority Shi'ite country at boiling point over U.S.
troops fighting near holy sites in Najaf.
At least 704 U.S. servicemen and women have been killed
in combat since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last year.
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