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06 Август 2004 22:49
По данни на иракчаните , загубите на Садр за 3 дни са 36 души :Najaf toll: US claims 300, fighters say 36
Friday 06 August 2004,
Najaf has seen heavy fighting over the past two days
Related:
US helicopter shot down in Najaf
US, Iraqi forces lift al-Sadr siege
US marines have killed an estimated 300 Shia fighters in fierce clashes around the Iraqi city of Najaf in the past two days, a senior US officer has said.
But a spokesman for Shia Muslim leader Muqtada al-Sadr denied many of his fighters had been killed.
The spokesman said 36 fighters had been killed in several Iraqi cities after clashes that have fuelled fears of a new rebellion among Iraqi Shias.
The fresh fighting, which still raged on Friday, marks a major challenge for the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Alawi and appears to have destroyed a two-month-old ceasefire between US forces and al-Sadr''s Mahdi Army.
"The number of enemy casualties is 300 KIA (killed in action), " Lieutenant Colonel Gary Johnston, operations officer for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said at a military base near the city, 160km south of Baghdad.
Johnston told reporters the Mahdi fighters were badly coordinated and shot at random against the heavily armed marines who were backed up by helicopter gunships and fighter planes.
"There is fighting right now. In some ways it is not as intense as yesterday, " he said.''American lies''!US military officials said there were indications that foreign fighters had joined the Mahdi Army. Criminal gangs were also involved, they said.
Fighters loyal to al-Sadr are battling US marines Asked about American casualties, Johnston said there were two dead and 12 wounded from the two days of fighting.
The US-appointed governor of Najaf put the death toll among Shia fighters at 400, with 1000 captured. He said he had information that 80 Iranians were fighting alongside al-Sadr''s militia.
However, Sheikh Raed al-Qathimi, a spokesman for al-Sadr, rebuffed the American version of the death toll.
"I categorically deny these American lies, " he said, before adding only 36 Shia fighters had been killed.
Another al-Sadr spokesman, Shaikh Mahmud al-Sudani, told Aljazeera both sides had suffered casualties and "there were no accurate figures due to the violent fighting which is still underway".
He added that US forces had violated the truce between the two sides as well as the sacredness of Imam Ali''s tomb which was subjected to shrapnel damage caused by nearby explosions.
Tension flare-up
Meanwhile, British and Italian troops also fought the Mahdi Army across Shia-dominated southern Iraq - in Basra, Amara and Nassiriya - while fighting raged in Sadr City and Shoula, two Shia districts of Baghdad.
British troops have been fighting
an uprising in Basra
The Health Ministry said fighting in Sadr City alone had killed 20 Iraqis and wounded 114 since early on Thursday, while in Nassiriya six were dead and 13 wounded.
Tension has been rising in Najaf since Iraqi security forces surrounded al-Sadr''s house earlier this week.
US marines recently replaced the US army in Najaf and analysts have suggested the upsurge in violence is linked to the marines taking a more aggressive approach with al-Sadr''s militia.
Militiamen shot down a US helicopter as it was trying to evacuate a wounded soldier on Thursday.Early on Friday F-16s, AC-130 gunships and helicopters patrolled the skies over Najaf, covering US troops battling resistance fighters in and around Najaf''s cemetery.
Fighting also flared near Najaf''s shrines, some of the holiest for Shia Muslims, and some said that gunfire had damaged the dome of the Imam Ali shrine.
The flare-up of tension with members of Iraq''s Shia community comes after Shia fighters rose up across south and central Iraq in April and May.
There are conflicting reports over
the number of casualties in Najaf
In the previous uprising, hundreds of Iraqis and dozens of US troops were killed.
Yet al-Sadr, with an ardent following among poor, disaffected youths, appeared keen to stop the latest fighting.
Via his spokesman in Baghdad, he called for a resumption of a truce struck in June.
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Колкото повече убиват "терористи", толкова повече муктадитесадърци ще стават герои в очите на иракчаните, толкова повече марионетките на САЩ ще им стават омразни, толкова по тясна ще става базата на окупаторите да имитират добронамереност. А българските политици вкараха стараната ни в тази мръсна война срещу народ, който нищо лошо не ни е направил. Естествено, че ще мечтаят да наложат и полицейски терор у нас, за да се спасят от народната любов и одобрението на делата им. Но така, когато оставиш соломон и ахмет да държат лостовете на управлението.
Защото , просто , е силно религиозен. Либератор , това което твърдиш е резонно , но аз съм склонен да гледам на такъв развой в Ирак , като на авариен изход за бягство на Бушовете. Едва ли е това е решението , което целят САЩ. Че това си е Виетнам 2 
Едва ли... Що се отнася до физическото унищожение на Садр , задачата съвсем не е лесна. Пък и няма особен смисъл; последователите му са десетки хиляди , само ще го канонизират и ще изберат нов водач. 