Иракски войници са стреляли срещу демонстрация в Куфа, десетки са ранени

26 август 2004 | 10:57 | Агенция "Фокус"



Куфа. Десетки души бяха ранени, след като военнослужещи от иракската Национална гвардия са открили огън срещу демонстранти, скандиращи в подкрепа на Муктада Садр в Куфа, предаде АФП.
Най-малко 25 души са загинали и 60 са били ранени, след като минометен снаряд се взриви в главната джамия в Куфа, контролирана от шиитските бунтовници.
Стотици души са се били събрали в храма, за да посрещнат водача на иракските шиити великия аятолах Али ал Систани, който пътува към Наджаф

demokracia shte stane v Iraq - potrajte da vi izbiem i da vi gepim nefta, a i shte vi vystanovim posle

Posted on Thu, Aug. 26, 2004





Mortar Attack Kills 27 at Kufa Mosque

Associated Press


KUFA, Iraq - A mortar barrage hit the main mosque in the Iraqi city of Kufa on Thursday, killing 27 people and wounding 63 others as they prepared to march on the violence-wracked city of Najaf, hospital officials and witnesses said.

Thousands of people were crowded around the mosque at the time and dead bodies lay around the mosque compound, which is a stronghold of followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, witnesses said.

Hussam al-Husseini, an al-Sadr aide, said one mortar shell hit the mosque compound itself and two others hit near the mosque gates. Others gave conflicting accounts of the number of explosions.

Mohammed AbdelKhadum, an official at al-Furat al-Awsat hospital in Kufa, said 27 people were killed and 63 injured. The morgue overflowed with bodies, and more than a dozen corpses had to be stored in the hospital's garden.

It was unclear who fired the mortars. U.S. forces have battled Shiite insurgents loyal to al-Sadr in neighboring Najaf and sporadically in Kufa for three weeks. Each side blamed the other for Thursday's mortar barrage.

"We were gathering outside and inside the mosque preparing to head to Najaf when two mortar shells landed, one inside the mosque and the other on the main gate," said Hani Hashem, bringing an injured friend to the hospital. "This is a criminal act. We just wanted to launch a peaceful demonstration."

Najaf and Kufa are only a few miles apart.

Outside the hospital's gate, crowds of angry people gathered, shouting "God is great!"

Iraq's top Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini Al-Sistani, returned home to Iraq on Wednesday from a nearly three-week trip to London, and was headed to Najaf on Thursday in a bid to end the fighting.

Upon his arrival Wednesday, al-Sistani's aides had called on supporters across the country to march on Najaf to support his peace bid.

Al-Sadr has regularly delivered a sermon during Friday prayers at the Kufa mosque.

Al-Sadr's aide, al-Husseini, said another mosque in Kufa had also been hit by mortar rounds. It was unclear whether there were casualties there.

He blamed the bombing on American forces backing Iraqi troops in the city, but a U.S. military spokesman denied that.

"We held the interim government responsible for this bombing. We hold it responsible for this bloodshed," al-Husseini said.

Marine Capt. Carrie Batson said in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Thursday that U.S. forces in the area "continue not to target holy sites, including the Kufa mosque."

"We did not have any weapons systems, to include mortars, in range of the Kufa Mosque last night, nor have we conducted any military operations in the city for the last 48 hours," Batson said.

Batson said that militants have been responsible for "wild, undisciplined fire" in the past. Earlier in the week, U.S. forces released photos purportedly showing a militant mortar system outside the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf and accused the militants of launching a rocket from inside the shrine compound that fell short and exploded just outside.

Kufa is just a few miles northeast of Najaf, where fierce clashes continued Thursday with U.S. warplanes bombing suspected positions of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and explosions booming across the city.

Al-Sistani is calling for Najaf and Kufa to be declared weapons-free cities, for all foreign forces to withdraw from Najaf and leave security to the police and for the Iraqi government to compensate those harmed by the fighting here, according to al-Sistani aide Hamed al-Khafaf.

The gray-bearded cleric wields enormous influence among Shiite Iraqis, and his arrival in Iraq had bolstered hopes the crisis can be resolved peacefully.

On Wednesday, three mortar rounds, apparently targeting a police checkpoint, hit a civilian area in Kufa, killing two civilians, including an 8-year-old boy, and wounding four others, witnesses and hospital officials said.

Elsewhere, unidentified gunmen shooting from an Iraqi Guard base killed two people and wounded five others who were taking part in what appeared to be a peaceful demonstration supporting al-Sadr, according to footage from Associated Press Television News and hospital officials.

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Iraqi police seize journalists in Najaf


Wednesday 25 August 2004, 23:57 Makka Time, 20:57 GMT


Iraqi policemen rounded up dozens of journalists at gunpoint in a Najaf hotel and took them to police headquarters before later releasing them.



Firing their guns in the air, the dozen odd policemen, some masked, stormed into the rooms of journalists in the Najaf Sea hotel and forced them into vans and a truck.

An AFP correspondent, who was also forced into a van, said the police pushed and pulled many reporters at gunpoint.



After a two-minute drive from the hotel, where journalists from across the world are based while covering the battle between al-Mahdi Army militiamen and US occupation forces city, the reporters were taken to the office of the police chief.



"You people are not under arrest," Najaf police chief Ghalib al-Jezari told them.



"You are brought here because I want to tell you that you never publish the truth. I speak the truth, but you never broadcast what we are."



The reporters, packed into the office, with some sitting on the floor in front of the police chief, protested at their detention.



"You have kidnapped us at gunpoint," said one reporter.



The police chief complained that reporters have been misreporting the proposed visit to Najaf by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the revered Iraqi Shiite Muslim leader.



Arab media detained

Iraqi police also arrested five members of a Dubai-based television news crew after they reported that US planes had fired missiles within metres of the Imam Ali mausoleum.

An Al-Arabiya satellite news bulletin on Wednesday evening said that although no official reason had been given, their detention came within minutes of a 17:00 GMT broadcast with live coverage of seriously fierce fighting in Najaf.

Damage to the Imam Ali complex, already the scene of major resistance to US occupation forces, would almost certainly exacerbate the conflict.

Iraqi security officials arrested the TV crew at their hotel in Najaf, taking five members into custody - including Iraq correspondent Diyar al-Omari.


Iran expects release

The arrests came as Iran's IRNA new agency announced it hopes to see two or three of its journalists released after their detention in Iraq on 9 August.

A source close to Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was quoted as saying two of the three IRNA journalists would be released, but did not say which ones.

IRNA's Baghdad bureau chief Mustafa Darban, and colleagues Muhammad Khafaji and Muhsin Madani went initially feared kidnapped before Tehran announced all three had been arrested by Iraqi police.



AFP

Iraqis fire at demonstration
From correspondents in Kufa, Iraq
26aug04

DOZENS of people were wounded today when Iraqi national guardsmen opened fire on a demonstration in support of radical Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Kufa, an AFP photographer witnessed.

Thousands of people chanting their solidarity with Sadr and denouncing Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, were heading for nearby Najaf, where Sadr's Mehdi Army is fighting US and Iraqi government forces. They were passing a military base on the road between Kufa and its twin city of Najaf, when the national guardsmen opened fire at them, the photographer said.
The shooting broke out not long after at least 25 people were killed and more than 100 wounded when two mortar bombs fell on Kufa's main mosque compound, controlled by Sadr's militiamen.

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