Zitat:Cleric calls for 'terror raids' after gun battle
By David Blair in Baghdad
(Filed: 05/04/2004)


When thousands of Shi'ite Muslims massed around a military base outside the Iraqi holy city of Najaf yesterday, the Spanish soldiers on duty might have thought they were facing another angry demonstration.
...

Zitat:U.S. Forces Launch Major Fallujah Operation

Monday, April 05, 2004

FALLUJAH, Iraq — Skirmishes broke out between U.S. Marines and Iraqi gunmen Monday as the Marines launched Operation Vigilant Resolve (search) in the volatile city in which four American civilians were slain last week in one of the more grisly displays of violence since the war began last year.

Explosions and gunfire were heard from the city — including a string of up to 30 blasts, apparently shelling, late Monday — as Marines met resistance while probing the outer neighborhoods of the city with reconnaissance missions.
...

Zitat:Iran declares war on U.S.

Nobody else is saying it, so, once again, it is left to me to explain what really happened in Iraq yesterday.
Iran declared war on the U.S.
The signs have been there for a long time. I don't know if they have been intentionally ignored by U.S. forces in Iraq, or whether there is some master plan at the Defense Department to deal with this scenario.
All I can tell you is we are now fighting a regional war. Our local opposition in Iraq is being trained, armed and directed with foreign support – by neighboring Iran.
...
Last April, an Iranian cleric, Kadhem al-Husseini al-Haeri, issued a religious edict and distributed to Shiite mullahs in Iraq, calling on them "to seize the first possible opportunity to fill the power vacuum in the administration of Iraqi cities."
The edict, or fatwa, issued April 8, 2003, showed that Shiite clerics in Iraq are receiving significant direction from Iran. The edict said that Shiite leaders have to "seize as many positions as possible to impose a fait accompli for any coming government."
"People have to be taught not to collapse morally before the means used by the Great Satan if it stays in Iraq," the fatwa read. "It will try to spread moral decay, incite lust by allowing easy access to stimulating satellite channels and spread debauchery to weaken people's faith."
...
Iran has clear objectives in Iraq. The only question is whether the United States still has clear objectives in Iraq – and whether Washington recognizes that this war front just got wider.

Zitat:Sadr Uprising’ Gains Support Of Sunni Iraqis
By Numir El-Higazi, IOL Correspondent

BAGHDAD, April 5 (IslamOnline.net) – Iraqi Sunnis showed Monday, April 5, great support toward the uprising of followers of Shiite young leader Moqtada Sadr against the U.S.-led occupation forces.

The enthusiasm triggered clashes in the Sunni Al-Aazamya neighborhood of Baghdad between Sunni young men – mostly teenagers – and occupation forces, according to Al-Jazeera.
...

Zitat:Zarqawi threatens US forces in Iraq, criticizes Shiite leader
Mon Apr 5, 8:48 PM ET Add Mideast - AFP to My Yahoo!

DUBAI (AFP) - Jordanian Mussab al-Zarqawi, the alleged leader of a network in Iraq (news - web sites) believed responsible for several attacks there, threatened US-led forces in a recording broadcast on an Islamist website.
In the message said to have originated from inside Iraq, Zarqawi claimed that his "heroic Mujahedin have killed more than 200 soldiers from the coalition of the crusaders."
Taking credit for several attacks, Zarqawi said "the most recent and not the last was against the Israeli Mossad in the Jabal Lubnan hotel."
...
In his message, posted on the site <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hostnow.biz/iraq4u/realahl.rm">www.hostnow.biz/iraq4u/realahl.rm</a><!-- w -->, Zaraqawi also sharply criticizes Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims as a "Trojan horse used by the enemies of the nation" to take over the country.

He also had sharp words for the spiritual head of Iraq's Shiite majority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who has appealed for calm and urged dialog amid recent clashes between Shiite militias and coalition troops, calling him the "imam of atheism".

"The Shiites are the allies of the Jews and Americans. They are helping kill Muslims," he said.

Zitat:8 U.S. Troops, 30 Iraqis Die in Fighting
12 minutes ago

By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer

FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. troops battled guerrillas Tuesday on the edge of Fallujah in an operation to crush the insurgency there, as violence inspired by supporters of an anti-American Shiite Muslim cleric again spread to at least four cities, with 30 Iraqis killed.
...

Zitat:Why the Iraqi Uprising?

By Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com | April 6, 2004

As of this writing, several Shi’ite areas of Baghdad have declared themselves free of the American occupiers, and Shi’ite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr appears to be in command of an army made up of thousands of Iraqis (including some Sunnis), with backing from Iran. American forces are facing their worst crisis since the toppling of Saddam.
...