H15192
Headlines : Iraqal-Sadr condemns Governors' Assassination
The ‘radical’ Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was quick to condemn the assassinations of two provincial governors. The governors were part of a strong political association which includes loyalists who dominate the police in southern Iraq and have been fighting the Mahdi Army militia in a key geographic region. The area is estimated to hold more than 70 percent of Iraq’s oil reserves.
Muqtada al-Sadr criticized the attacks, claiming they were aimed at fracturing Iraq’s majority Islamic sect.
“We don’t have any relation with these acts or have any involvement, we condemn such acts that aim at destabilizing the situation in the center and southern Iraq,’‘ al-Sadr’s spokesman Ahmed al-Shibani said Tuesday.
[Posted By antiguanoctane]Republished from Guardian Unlimited
Muqtada al-Sadr’s office on Tuesday condemned the assassinations of two southern provincial governors as the radical Shiite cleric distanced himself from the killings, seen as part of a brutal contest among rival Shiite militias for control of some of Iraq’s main oil regions.
Iraqi police had blamed Monday’s roadside bombing that killed the governor of the vast Muthanna province on the powerful Mahdi Army, which is nominally loyal to al-Sadr but has seen factions splinter away over frustration with U.S. raids targeting the militia that has been blamed for much of the sectarian violence in recent months.
The attacks that killed Gov. Mohammed Ali al-Hassani and his colleague Gov. Khalil Jalil Hamza in neighboring Qadasiyah province nine days earlier raised fears that showdowns in southern Iraq – pitting Mahdi groups against the mainstream Shiite group in parliament – could intensify as the British forces overseeing the south gradually withdraw in the coming months.
Posted by antiguanoctane
hunter & gatherer of real news from real sources.
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I hate to tell you this Hamid, but Moqtada is the king of mainstream shii’ites in Iraq. Al Hakim is an infidel.
The assassinations were an obvious attempt to incriminate Moqtada. I don’t think anyone was fooled. But it’s best just to pipe up and make it very very clear.
Meanwhile, the AWOL rate is going through the roof because das Bush thinks das Boots are machines and he’s leaving ‘em out in inclement weather, cause they’re supposed to just be killing machines. 15 months plus with no break.
Even the machines aren’t getting a break for maintenance.
So when a Black Hawk goes down, killing 14, the MIC can not honestly say there was any “enemy” fire involved.
So what do you know, word got out that General Pace was going to recommend to the POTUS that he begin to consider the possibility that his troops might be made of flesh and blood. Everybody’s there that can be there as long as you don’t give anyone a breather. If you give the boots a break you’d cut the presence down from 162,000 to 100,000 but das Bush doesn’t even wanna be asked.
So Pace is saying he ain’t asked and everyone should just stfu. Even though Bush appears to have just fired the guy for what surely must be insubordination.
Even though The Word is trying to be that we need our boots to respond to “other” threats — because coming right out and saying that the threat in question might be exhaustion would be committing the crime of having a bad attitude.
But okay, how about just “when the current buildup is over”? LOL.
And Jose Padilla is suing Donald Rumsfeld. Take that, you MF. Robert Gates, John Ashcroft and Paul Wolfowitz have also been called to the dock mit Das Duck.