Word: basra
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...More importantly, Sadr has called on his own supporters - most of whom hail not from Najaf, but from the urban Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad, Basra and the cities in between - to answer Sistani's call and make for Najaf. Ever alert to the political opportunity, Moqtada Sadr appears intent on making sure he emerges from the siege looking not only victorious, but also in lockstep with Sistani and the Shiite clerical mainstream...
...emerge from the Najaf siege intact, and his supporters will be looking for guidance on their next step. Although they were forced to surrender the Imam Ali Mosque - to Sistani, not to the Iraqi government - they also showed considerable ability to cause problems through guerrilla warfare from Baghdad to Basra, the latter city being where they took Iraq's oil exports offline for days at a time. The Iraqi government will persist with efforts to bring him on board, but he's reluctant to accord them legitimacy, and he may be assuming that the siege has actually further weakened Allawi...
...know. We really don't know. We have arrested a lot of people in Najaf, and when we ask them who they're with, they say they are not with al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. The crimes that have been committed have been quite obvious. You visit Basra now and see the destruction of the oil pipeline. Or if you go and ask the [families of the] people who were killed, the innocent bystanders, and you go and meet the families of the policemen who were killed in Najaf ... These are really acts of criminals. It's not a political...
...both Shiite and Sunni Muslim Iraqis, and thousands of Shiites have flocked to Najaf to act as "human shields" to protect Sadr in the event of a new offensive. Elsewhere in Iraq, Sadr's militiamen continue daily to demonstrate their capacity for disruption, attacking oil wells and pipelines around Basra, blowing up an American tank in the streets of east Baghdad and mounting attacks on coalition forces in major cities in between. Even the national conference came under mortar fire last Saturday, although that could as easily have been the work of Sunni insurgents. And Allawi's government will have...
...Sadrists, for their part, demonstrated their capacity to disrupt the peace throughout southern Iraq, and in the capital where they essentially run the vast Shiite slum known as Sadr City, which houses two million people. Mehdi militants confronted Coalition forces in a number of southern Iraqi cities, and at Basra they even managed to take Iraq's oil exports offline. Beside the firefights initiated by his militias, there were also tens of thousands of Iraqis on the streets demonstrating against the U.S.-Allawi offensive by week's end. Particularly worrying to the new government will have been the spectacle...