IRAQ: U.S. MARINES AND IRAQI POLICE FIGHT FIERCE BATTLES WITH MOQTADA AL-SADR'S MEDHI ARMY MILITIA IN NAJAF

Record ID: 376277

  • Title: IRAQ: U.S. MARINES AND IRAQI POLICE FIGHT FIERCE BATTLES WITH MOQTADA AL-SADR'S MEDHI ARMY MILITIA IN NAJAF
  • Date: 5th August 2004
  • Summary: (W3) NAJAF, IRAQ (AUGUST 5, 20045) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. IRAQI POLICEMEN FIRING INTO AIR (2 SHOTS) 0.14 2. HELICOPTERS HOVERING OVER CITY 0.19 3. HAS: MILITIAMEN OF MEHDI ARMY IN STREET (2 SHOTS) 0.28 4. U.S. MILITARY CONVOY PATROLLING STREET 0.34 4. VARIOUS OF WOUNDED AT HOSPITAL (6 SHOTS) 0.57 Init
  • Embargoed: 20th August 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NAJAF, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA2CDLQBK7LTJN94XV7H8JAZNYV
  • Story Text: U.S. marines and Iraqi police have been fighting
    members of Sadr's Mehdi Army in fierce clashes that
    followed an overnight attack on police.


    U.S. marines and Iraqi security forces fought
    fierce battles with supporters of radical Shi'ite cleric
    Moqtada al-Sadr in the holy city of Najaf on Thursday
    (August 5), with marines calling in helicopters for backup,
    witnesses said.

    The clashes followed overnight fighting during which
    an Iraqi police station was attacked.

    A U.S. military statement said the police station was
    attacked by "a significant number of aggressors" believed
    to be members of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia.

    The statement said the attackers used heavy machine
    guns, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and small arms in
    an assault on the police station around 3 a.m. (0000GMT).

    "Iraqi national guardsmen quickly reinforced Iraqi
    police, and the two units successfully defended the station
    from the attackers. Upon arrival of the marines, Medhi Army
    members withdrew into the city's exclusion zone," the
    military said.

    It called the attack an overt violation of the
    ceasefire agreement reached in June between coalition
    forces and Moqtada Sadr.

    But Sheikh Mahmoud al-Sudani, a spokesman for Sadr,
    said U.S. forces and Iraqi police had attacked first, and
    that the cleric had ordered his militiamen not to fight
    back.

    Sadr launched an uprising against U.S.-led forces in
    April, and hundreds were killed in weeks of fighting in
    Shi'ite areas of Iraq. As part of the truce agreed in June,
    U.S. troops said they would not enter parts of Najaf, home
    to the holiest shrines in Shi'ite Islam.

    An arrest warrant has been issued for Sadr in
    connection with the murder of a rival cleric in Najaf last
    year. But during truce negotiations with Sadr earlier this
    year, Iraqi officials said they would not seek his arrest.



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