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Joint forces raid sadr home { August 12 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-081204najaf_lat,1,6458442.story?coll=la-home-headlineshttp://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-081204najaf_lat,1,6458442.story?coll=la-home-headlines
U.S and Iraqi Forces Raid Sadr's Home
By Edmund Sanders
Times Staff Writer
10:39 AM PDT, August 12, 2004
NAJAF, Iraq — Several thousand U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a major assault today in central Najaf on forces loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr, surrounding the Old City and sacred Imam Ali Shrine and later raiding Sadr's house a few miles to the east.
The offensive, which U.S. military leaders had been planning for days, triggered renewed clashes in the Najaf cemetery and opened up a second front to the south of the city.
The U.S. assault began early this morning, when Army units began positioning themselves along the north and, for the first time, the south of the Old City and the holy mosque.
Under a crescent moon, Army tanks and Humvees rumbled through the cemetery north of the old city and took up positions among the jumble of tombs and mausoleums. Soldiers call the graveyard the "city of the dead" because it resembles more of a densely packed village, with alleys and maze-like corridors.
By 8 a.m., the Mahdi Army began attacking the forward U.S. positions with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Soldiers dismounted to search for the source of the attacks, climbing on foot over crypts and silently motioning to one another with hand signals.
Shortly after they returned to their vehicles, militants again attacked with mortars, this time spraying two soldiers with shrapnel. One, a gunner atop a Humvee, was hit in the face. Both were quickly evacuated and are expected to recover.
U.S. helicopter gunships were quickly brought to the scene, swooping down low over the graveyard and spraying Mahdi Army targets with machine gun and rocket fire.
Later in the day, a combination of U.S. and Iraqi troops entered Sadr's home, but he was not there.
Less than a block away, intense fighting erupted outside a maternity hospital, where the troops took fire from insurgents in nearby apartment buildings and a school. The troops called for help and the school was blown up by a Maverick missile.
Heavy smoke also billowed from a fuel tanker that was blown up in the fighting between U.S. troops and insurgents near Sadr's house.
Iraqi forces, meanwhile, fought Sadr's Madhi militia in pockets of city after Sadr's followers bombarded the main Iraqi police station outside the old city with more than 25 mortars rounds. According to U.S. radar, the mortars were launched from inside the courtyard of the Imam Ali shrine.
Fighting stayed relatively clear of the mosque, one of the most sacred sites in Islam. Military officials said no decisions had about been made about whether to enter the mosque compound, where an estimated 1,000 Sadr followers are believed to be holed up inside.
"That decision is going to be made by (Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad) Allawi," said Maj. David Holahan, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment in Najaf.
U.S. helicopters fired rocket and machine guns at a truck carrying four militia members about 500 yards from the mosque, killing all four and sparking a large blaze that burned for nearly an hour, sending an arch of black smoke over the shrine's gold dome.
A second large explosion near the mosque was seen later in the afternoon.
Several hundred Najaf residents were said to be fleeing the city, but military officials disputed such claims. About 300 residents protested Wednesday, calling upon a cease-fire to spare their city from more violence.
Army officials said nearly 1,600 troops were used to cordon off a large circle — about two miles wide — around the Old City and mosque. They said, though, that they had not cut off all access.
"It's just to prevent Mahdi Army from getting in or out," said Maj. Bob Pizzitola, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment. "If Mr. Smith wants to go to the mosque to prayed, he can go to the mosque. If Mr. Smith has a car load of weapons, he's not going in."
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