Word: karbala
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...past week has seen the heaviest fighting since the end of the war as U.S. and Coalition forces battle Sunni and Shiite insurgents for control of the streets in Baghdad's Shiite slums, the Sunni Triangle towns of Fallujah, Ramadi and Baquba; and the southern Shiite cities of Najaf, Karbala, Nasiriyah, Kut, Amara, Diwaniyah and Basra. At least 32 U.S. troops and more than 200 Iraqis have been killed in the past four days, and the fighting is showing no signs of abating. And the fact that the Sunni militants who have waged a year-long insurgency are now joined...
...actions in Baghdad and the Sunni Triangle. But the outbreak of hostilities in the southern cities has put troops from Italy, Spain, El Salvador, Poland, Ukraine and Bulgaria on the front lines. The Bulgarian government called on Wednesday for U.S. reinforcements to help its 450 soldiers under fire in Karbala, while the Ukrainian contingent at Kut was chased out of town by angry Shiites who took over their base. And the Iraqi security forces on which the U.S. hopes to rely increasingly have offered little cause for comfort - mostly, the Iraqi police simply melted away when the Sadrists arrived...
...dilemma becomes even more acute as U.S. commanders ponder a response to Friday's Shiite festival of Araba'in, which is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of Shiites to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. That's because the city is currently under the control of Moqtada Sadr's militia, and the cleric is holed up in his office there near the tomb of Imam Ali, the holiest shrine of the Shiite sect. The U.S. has vowed to destroy the Mahdi militia and arrest Moqtada, but the expected convergence on Najaf on Friday raises the stakes...
...deaths, he flew to Geneva to meet Annan--an old friend--and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. He urged them to stay focused on winding down the U.S. occupation and giving Iraq a sovereign government. When multiple suicide attacks killed more than 180 in Baghdad and Karbala earlier this month, Pachachi worked the phones, summoning council members of all ethnic groups to a news conference to appeal for unity...
...Administration's exit strategy, which keeps shifting as the realities on the ground change. Reporter Vivienne Walt interviewed Coalition Provisional Authority administrator L. Paul Bremer, and reporter Stephan Faris gave accounts of rising frustration among Iraq's Shi'ites and of the bombings that killed scores of civilians in Karbala. "Anyone who'd been in Iraq always knew getting out cleanly was going to be infinitely harder than getting in," says senior foreign correspondent Johanna McGeary, who wrote the story and visited Iraq four times until the regime blacklisted her shortly before...