On Tuesday morning, fresh fighting occurred between fighters of the al-Mahdi Army and US occupation troops, Aljazeera's correspondent reported.
US military vehicles were burnt in the fighting, the correspondent said, quoting reliable sources.
Meanwhile, the delegation which was to have left for Najaf on Monday is now readying to go on Tuesday in an attempt also to convince al-Sadr to transform his al-Mahdi Army into a political entity.
Earlier on Monday, about 2000 Iraqi civilian "volunteers" formed a human shield around him inside the Imam Ali shrine which is hemmed in by US-led forces.
The volunteers cheered al-Sadr in the marble-floored courtyard of the Imam Ali mosque in an impressive show of force.
They said they had no serious military training but added they would use any means to block advancing US tanks positioned in neighbourhoods around the shrine.
Meanwhile, at least 3 more U.S. soliders died in Iraq yesterday...
(source: Al-Jazeera & Prensa Latina)
Analysis:
The Ultimate Stupidity The Attack on Najaf (Counter Punch)
News:
1) U.S. Tanks Roll Closer to Najaf Shrine (Associated Press)
2) Iraqi 'human shields' flock to Najaf (Reuters)
3) Three GIs Killed in Fighting in Iraq (Prensa Latina)
4) DoD Identifies Marine Casualties (U.S. Department of Defense)
==========================================================
The Ultimate Stupidity
The Attack on Najaf
By GARY LEUPP
Oppose the oppressor and support the oppressed.
www. counterpunch. org August 16, 2004
I have been thinking for months that if those commanding U.S. forces in
Iraq really wanted to perform the ultimate stupidity, and ratchet up
exponentially the degree of hatred they face in Iraq and throughout the
Muslim world---then they'd surely attack the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf,
or be drawn into a situation where they'd damage it. This is the most
important Shiite site in the world, and is holy not only to Shiites
(about 120 million people) but also to all the billion-plus Muslims on
the planet. It sits atop the tomb of Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the
Prophet, fourth caliph ("successor" of Muhammed and political and
religious leader of the expanding Muslim world), assassinated by
opponents in 661. Ali's partisans supported his son Hussein as next
caliph, but Umayyad foes defeated Hussein and 72 followers in battle at
Karbala in 680, their martyrdoms producing the enduring division between
Sunni and Shia Islam.
Hussein is entombed, not with his father, but in Karbala. But according
to Shiite tradition, an even more remarkable figure rests under the
golden dome of the Ali Shrine: Adam, the first man. A son of Noah, who
refused to enter the ark, died in Najaf, and here the patriarch Abraham
and his son Isaac once bought a parcel of land now called the Valley of
Peace. This is the sprawling Wadi al-Salaam cemetery (the world's
largest) that adjoins the shrine. Pilgrimage to Najaf will supposedly
bring 70,000 Muslims immediate entry into Paradise. Najaf was home to
Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini for twelve years. It was a target of Saddam
Hussein during the Shiite rebellion after the 1991 Gulf War, in which
the first President Bush encouraged the Shiites to rise up, only to
abandon them ignominiously. (In that episode the shrine was looted and
bombed, although soon repaired by the Baathist regime.) Ayatollah
Mohammad Sadiq al-Sadr, Muqtada al-Sadr's father, was assassinated here
in 1999. In short, Najaf is a hub of mythology, tradition, and
historical memories of injustice, resistance and martyrdom that
inevitably affect its significance as a military target. Especially when
Shiite resistance fighters take refuge there, and use it as a base of
operations against unwelcome infidel troops.
Shiites constitute about 10% of the world's Muslims, and are the
majority population in Iran (93%) and Azerbaijan (61%). They comprise
large communities in India and Pakistan (over 50 million total), but are
the majority in only two Arab nations, tiny Bahrain (65%) and Iraq
(60%). In Iraqi Shiism, the Arab and Indo-Iranian worlds intersect, and
by chance the holiest site of Shiism is located in a proud Arab country,
next door to the Shiite powerhouse of Iran, and now surrounded by
foreign invaders. The latter, under fire from the general population,
come to hate, fear and disparage the Iraqis and, regardless of the
orders they receive from their officers, cannot be expected to treat
Muslim sites with sensitivity and deference.
"We Do Not Wish to Get Involved with the Mosque"
It is of course, official U.S. policy to avoid damaging the Ali Shrine.
"We do not in any way wish to get involved with the mosque," says
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64954-2004Aug14?language=prin
ter> Secretary of State Colin Powell. "It's a very holy place for all
Shia." But how can U.S. forces and their token allies, occupying Najaf
and the rest of Iraq, not "get involved" with a prime symbol of the
identity of the invaded population? Especially when 1000 members of
al-Sadr's Mahdi Army are holed up in and around Najaf's Old City,
demanding U.S. withdrawal, and amnesty for the militiamen, as the price
for their own retreat?
Blaming continued attacks on the Mahdi Army, U.S. forces broke a
< target=_blank>http://www.counterpunch.com/rai08132004.html> cease-fire August 2 in
Kufa, next to Najaf, and an earlier agreement not to attempt to arrest
al-Sadr. The cleric's forces responded by seizing 18 Iraqi police
officers, while in Basra the Mahdi Army declared a jihad against British
forces that had arrested four al-Sadr supporters two days earlier. Even
so, al-Sadr called for a restoration of a truce signed in June; but this
was rejected by the U.S.-appointed governor of Najaf. "Major operations
to destroy [al-Sadr's] militia have begun," announced Marine Major David
Holahan, of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines Regiment, while the U.S. and
British press promoted the Najaf operation as the "final" assault on the
Mahdi Army. "This is one battle we really do feel we can win," a U.S.
diplomat told the Telegraph. On August 5, ostensibly responding to
attacks on themselves and an Iraqi police station launched from the
Valley of Peace by the Mahdi Army, U.S. forces moved into the graveyard,
later claiming 300 enemy dead.
The First Shiite Uprising
This was not their first encounter with the Mahdi forces; in April, the
U.S. military conducted "Operation Iron Saber" against this militia
requiring an extension of tours of duty of the 1st Armored Division1st
Armored Division. ("The operation will continue until the goal of
eliminating and disarming al-Sadr's militia is met," announced a Polish
forces spokesman, adding, "I think that will take place soon." That was
three months ago.) But why did they attack this group, which needless to
say had no connection to 9-11, or to al-Qaeda, or Saddam Hussein, or any
previously mentioned target of the "War on Terror"? Al-Sadr, the son of
a renowned and beloved cleric killed (hence martyred) by Saddam, whose
power base is a huge slum area with a population of two million in
Baghdad---a district now named Sadr City---had been in the crosshairs of
the occupation for many months. This is because he had denounced it from
the outset, and demanded that the foreign troops withdraw or face a
jihad. In April, before the sham "handover of power," his newspaper was
banned, a top aide arrested, and a warrant for his arrest issued months
earlier suddenly made public. (The charges were connected with the
< target=_blank>http://www.ccmep.org/2003_articles/Iraq/041003_iraqi_shiite_leader.htm>
killing of Grand Ayatollah Amd al-Majid al-Khoei, a pro-U.S. cleric
flown in from London during the invasion and pegged to administer Najaf.
Al-Khoei, whom senior Shiite cleric al-Sistani refused to meet, and who
was insulted by common people in the streets of the city, was blown to
bits outside the Ali Shrine in April 2003.)
Not cowed by the measures against him, the 30ish al-Sadr turned from
peaceful protest to active, armed resistance, as his popularity soared.
In May, according to a poll conducted by the "Coalition Provisional
Authority" itself, he was viewed favorably by 68% of the Iraqis, and the
figure has doubtless risen since. After taking significant casualties in
Operation Iron Saber, the U.S. agreed to a cease-fire in June. Al-Sadr
urged his forces to leave Najaf and announced plans to enter the planned
presidential race. In the course of this operation, machinegun fire from
some source produced four twelve by eight inch holes in the golden dome
of the shrine; U.S. forces accused the Mahdi Army of shooting up their
own holy site, but many doubted this. Iron Saber, according
< target=_blank>http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/church_reformation/becket_04.shtml>
to U.S. forces, killed several thousand militiamen and was a great
success. But it didn't rid the U.S. and its allies of this troublesome
priest.
Negotiations Fail
On August 10 residents of the central section of Najaf were ordered to
evacuate; soon Najaf became a ghost town. Meanwhile tens of thousands
rallied in protest in five Iraqi cities, and in Iran, Bahrain, Lebanon,
Pakistan and elsewhere. In their minds, Najaf's holy places were already
under attack. According to the Washington Post, about 10,000 Iraqis
arrived in the city Saturday to defend the shrine. These included Sunnis
and Sunni clerics from Fallujah expressing solidarity. The leadership of
Shiite Iran has strongly condemned U.S. moves on the shrine, and the
Sunni organization, the Muslim Scholars Board, has issued a fatwa
ordering police from cooperating with occupying forces.
The assault paused Friday as al-Sadr's representatives negotiated with
the U.S.-installed President Iyad Allawi for an end to the
confrontation. One reads conflicting reports about why the talks failed.
Some suggest that Allawi's national security advisor Mowaffak Rubaie
sought to meet al-Sadr, who refused; others state that al-Sadr wished to
meet with Rubaie, but could not. Al-Sadr spokesman Qais al-Khazali said
a deal had been reached and signed when "we were surprised that they
[Allawi's negotiators] got instructions from Dr. Allawi to leave." http://www.sundayherald.com/44094 An anonymous western diplomat quoted
in the Boston Globe says that talks failed because Allawi had made
al-Sadr a "relatively generous" offer, including clemency for the
outstanding murder charge, but al-Sadr, as mentioned above, demanded a
U.S. withdrawal and amnesty for his militiamen. Perhaps an agreement was
vetoed by a third party; U.S. officials have opposed granting amnesty to
anyone who has killed or injured U.S. troops. In any case, when the
talks broke down, U.S. officials indicated that, on instructions from
Allawi, Iraqi rather than U.S. forces (six of whom have already died in
this operation) would attend to the destruction of the militia. American
military officers praised this as a politically wise decision.
U.S. Forces in a Bind
This tactical decision to deploy Iraqis against Iraqis seems not to have
eroded support for the Mahdi Army's resistance or opposition to U.S.
behavior in Najaf. The residents of Sunni Fajullah, recalling the
assistance that Shiites have given them in their resistance to the
occupation, have demonstrated in support of al-Sadr and sent forces to
his aid in the holy city. The occupation-appointed deputy governor of
Najaf, and over half the provincial council, have resigned in protest.
Even one of the two U.S.-appointed deputy presidents, Ibrahim Jaafari,
has called on "multinational forces to leave Najaf."
On Sunday, of the 1300 delegates to the national conference in Baghdad
to select a provisional legislature, over 100 walked out in protest, one
stating, "as long as there are air strikes and shelling [in Najaf], we
can't have a conference." Many Iraqis fear the U.S. will, Powell's words
notwithstanding, "get involved with the mosque," and by inflicting
damage upon it, open the gates of hell upon themselves and all complicit
in the occupation. 4000 Iraqi security forces in Najaf had defected to
al-Sadr's < target=_blank>http://www.slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2105127&> army by
Saturday.
Officials of the Iraqi "defense ministry" told Knight Ridder on Sunday
that "more than 100 Iraqi national guardsmen and a battalion of Iraqi
soldiers chose to quit rather than attack fellow Iraqis in a city that
includes some of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam." One high-ranking
officer said, "We received a
< target=_blank>http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9409919.htm> report that a
whole battalion (in Najaf) threw down their rifles. We expected this,
and we expect it again and again." Perhaps the politically wise decision
of using Iraqi rather than U.S. forces just won't work. That would
explain why all foreign reporters (except those embedded with the U.S.
military) were ordered out of Najaf Sunday. (Al-Jazeera had already been
booted for biased reporting. Fox remains.)
Al-Sadr's only real rival for popular support, Grand Ayatollah Ali
Hussein Sistani, is in London recovering from a heart operation, urging
restraint on both sides and likely undercutting his own moral authority
and nationalist credentials in the process. While Shiite opposition to
the occupation has been growing for months, the confrontation at the
shrine has drawn a clear line between the Shiites and the Coalition now
operating through a puppet regime. Even if, as reported, many in Najaf
are tiring of al-Sadr's methods, which threaten the business stemming
from religious pilgrimage; and even if ranking clerics in Iran are
distancing themselves from the Mahdi Army; the second Shiite uprising in
four months may well constitute a neocon's "nightmare scenario."
Particularly if it widens into a broader patriotic uprising, and thence
into an even wider international-Muslim confrontation with the
American-dominated foreign forces. On the other hand, the presence of
Syrians and Iranians (reported by the Telegraph) may embolden the more
audacious warmongers to use setbacks in Iraq to justify further
regime-change projects in the region. More Rumsfeldian "creative chaos."
Possibilities
That creative chaos to date has involved the sacking of the Baghdad
Museum, the sexual torture of innocents in Adu Ghraib and other prisons,
lingering denial of basic utilities and services, the deaths of at least
11,000 civilians, breakdown in security, rampant crime including
kidnapping and rape, ineptly improvised and constantly changing
administrative institutions, ongoing attacks crippling the oil industry.
All of this might be leading to some apocalyptic climax, glorious as the
golden dome of Imam Ali's shrine. But of what sort?
Even if among the occupied, some (confused, disoriented, naively
optimistic) initially thought the foreigners might bring liberation,
these must now conclude---through harsh experience---that liberation is
not conferred but rather won. The Mahdi Army cannot, in my view, really
liberate anyone with its fundamentalist religious agenda, and this,
perhaps, many of its adherents will come to understand. But for the time
being, it presents the imperialists with their thorniest challenge. The
warriors of this jihad know that their countrymen will desert, or defect
to themselves, rather than serve the infidels in Najaf. The original sin
of the occupation is that it is, after all, an occupation. Worse, one
based on lies. Justified after the fact, after the bogus rationales were
all discredited, by the boast, "We overthrew a dictator," the occupation
now faces the jihadis' charge that it is worse even than Saddam. (The
occupier puzzles at the charge. Aren't we rebuilding schools? he thinks,
not realizing that Iraq once had the finest school system in the Arab
world, and small need for its reconstruction---until somebody, for
reasons some think worth it, damaged it and so much else.)
Worse than Saddam. From the minarets of the mosque joining heaven and
earth, the muezzin calls out that charge, and in a land of martyred
imams, it resonates powerfully among the oppressed.
==========================================================
1) U.S. Tanks Roll Closer to Najaf Shrine
By ABDUL HUSSEIN AL-OBEIDI
.c The Associated Press
NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - U.S. tanks on Monday edged to within 500 yards of the Imam Ali shrine, Iraq's holiest Shiite site, as explosions shook an adjacent cemetery that has been the scene of fierce fighting between American troops and militants loyal to the firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Fighting in Najaf killed two U.S. soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division on Sunday, the military reported Monday. A third soldier was killed Sunday in the volatile Anbar province, the center of the country's Sunni insurgency.
Police Chief Maj. Gen. Ghalib al-Jazaari said militants loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr broke into his family's house in the southern city of Basra and kidnapped his handicapped and ailing 80-year-old father.
``They dragged him on the street in front of the local residents,'' al-Jazaari said.
He said the gunmen were accompanied by police loyal to al-Sadr and the militants told him his father, Hadi Kudhaiyer al-Jazaari, would only be released if al-Jazaari was willing to take his place in captivity. Al-Jazaari said he would not give in.
Also Monday, police said a Western journalist, Micah Garen, and his Iraqi translator, Amir Doushi, were kidnapped as they walked through a crowded market in the southern city of Nasiriyah.
Witnesses said the men were abducted Friday by two men in civilian clothes and armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, according to police Capt. Haidar Aboud said.
Adnan al-Shoraify, deputy governor of Dhi Qar province, said Garen was a journalist with U.S.-French citizenship who worked for the U.S.-based Four Corners Media and was working on a project involving antiquities near Nasiriyah.
Armed assailants also attacked a convoy of Turkish trucks on its way back from delivering supplies to U.S. forces in Baghdad and took two drivers hostage, their company said Monday. The two men were abducted outside the northern city of Mosul, said Oktay Gorgun, an official with the trucking company.
The U.S. military estimates hundreds of insurgents have been killed since clashes broke out in Najaf on Aug. 5, but the militants dispute the figure. Eight Americans have been killed, the military said.
Al-Jazaari said 40 police have been killed and he accused the militants of torturing, maiming and burning the bodies of some. At least 19 policemen, including his nephew, were beheaded, he said.
Another officer was found Monday with his throat slit in his car in the city center, said Brig. Amer Hamza, the deputy police chief. He blamed the militants for the killing.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to intervene to help stop the fighting, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Monday.
``Americans once again made a grave blunder in calculating developments in Iraq and provoked the sentiments of the Iraqi people through resorting to the use of force,'' IRNA reported Kharrazi told Annan in a telephone conversation.
Saudi Arabia's Cabinet also called for ``a greater role for the United Nations in efforts to stop the bloodshed,'' the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
The continued Najaf fighting has undermined the Iraqi interim government in the eyes of Shiites, angered by the sight of U.S. troops firing around some of their holiest sites.
It also dominated Iraq's national conference Monday in Baghdad, with tribal and religious leaders deciding to send 60 delegates to the holy city to persuade al-Sadr to call off his fighters.
Fighting Sunday apparently caused minor damage to the outer wall of the shrine compound - where the militants are holed up - ripping off some tiles and leaving some holes. US. commanders, who have taken the lead in the Najaf fighting, have issued strict orders to keep the shrine out of the line of fire.
An armed group also claimed it had captured an Iraqi intelligence operative and would kill him if the military operation in Najaf continues, according to a video shown early Tuesday on the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera television station. The video showed the captive, identified as Osama Abdul Jawad, standing between two armed masked men.
In other developments Monday:
Two civilians were killed and four wounded when a mortar hit their house in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, said Ali Hussein, a medic at the main hospital there. It was not known who fired the mortar, but insurgents frequently clash with U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces in the city.
A roadside bomb in Baqouba wounded three members of the Iraqi National Guard, said guardsmen Zuhair Abdul-Kareem, who was injured in the blast.
A U.S tank in Baghdad's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City was ambushed, but the crew escaped with only minor injuries, said Maj. Philip Smith, deputy spokesman for the 1st Cavalry Division.
Two Lebanese truck drivers, Taha al-Jundi and Khaldoun Othman, who were kidnapped two weeks ago were released, Othman's brother Waleed said Monday.
U.S. warplanes bombed a house in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, but caused no damage or injuries, residents said.
Maj. Muayad al-Hardan, an official with the Anbar provincial police, was shot to death as he drove his police car in the city of Ramadi, police 1st Lt. Ibrahim Mohammed said.
Thousands have sworn to protect the Imam Ali shrine
Around 2000 Iraqi civilian "volunteers" have formed a human shield around
Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf as US-led forces besiege the city.
The volunteers cheered al-Sadr in the marble-floored courtyard of the Imam
Ali mosque on Monday in an impressive show of force.
Al-Sadr is holed up inside one of Shia Islam's most sacred shrines before an
expected American-led offensive.
Traveling to Najaf from across Iraq, the al-Sadr volunteers are swelling the
ranks of his supporters and could provide another reason for US troops to
think twice before storming the shrine.
"These people are a deterrent to the Americans because they are civilians.
They are here so that the Americans won't attack the Imam Ali shrine," said
Shaikh Ahmad al-Shaibani, a senior al-Sadr aide.
Protecting the shrine
Any serious damage to the revered site would enrage millions of Shias around
the world. However, US commanders have said they do not intend to attack the
shrine itself.
The volunteers said they had no serious military training. But they seem
ready to fire an AK-47 rifle or rocket-propelled grenade and use any means
to try to block an advance by US tanks positioned in neighbourhoods near the
shrine.
"I will lie on the ground in front of tanks, or I will kill the Americans to
defend al-Sadr and Najaf"
Fadil Hamid"I will lie on the ground in front of the tanks, or I will kill
the Americans to defend al-Sadr and Najaf," said Fadil Hamid, 30.
Last week, thousands of Iraqis staged pro-Sadr protests in several cities
and called for the downfall of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
Several of the volunteers referred to Allawi as Saddam Hussein the second,
referring to the toppled former president accused of killing thousands of
Shias.
"Allawi you coward, you agent of the Americans," the crowd yelled. "Allawi
we don't need you."
==========================================================
3) Three GIs Killed in Fighting in Iraq
Baghdad, Aug 16 (Prensa Latina) Three US soldiers have been killed in recent
clashes between occupation forces and Shia Muslim fighters, Al Jazeera news
service reported Monday.
Marine Capt Carrie Batson said Monday two of the troops attached to the
11th Marine Expeditionary Unit were killed Sunday in Najaf province, when
troops came under attack by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr militiamen.
A third soldier attached to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, deployed in
Anbar province, was also killed Sunday, Batson said. Anbar includes the
volatile cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Qaim, on the Syrian border.
Thick smoke rose from Najaf on Monday morning before an expected major
military assault on Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army fighters.
Meanwhile, Iraq's three-day national conference is to send a delegation to
urge Muqtada al-Sadr to withdraw his fighters from Najaf and turn his
al-Mahdi Army into a political party.
Participants approved by a show of hands the proposal put forward by a
relative of al-Sadr, Baghdad Shia cleric Shaikh Husayn al-Sadr, who told the
conference on Monday:
"I suggest you appeal urgently to Muqtada al-Sadr as we did yesterday to the
Iraqi government and draw up a three-point resolution that everyone can
agree with, Husayn al-Sadr said.
But certain al-Sadr sympathizers complained against the method of voting and
one said he would leave the conference.
On Monday, Falah Hassan, from the Shiite Political Council, walked out of
the conference, following an ultimatum his group issued on Sunday that his
delegates would leave if U.S. troops didn't pull out of Najaf within 24
hours. However, the rest of his group remained at the conference.
In Najaf, a spokesman for al-Sadr, Shaikh Ahmad al-Shaibani, said the
question of the militia laying down arms and becoming a political
organization could only be solved by negotiations and not a unilateral
decision
As a premise, Muqtada al-Sadr has called on US troops to leave the country.
Khudair al-Abbas, from the Shia Dawa party of Vice President Ibrahim
al-Jaafari, said his party fully supported the initiative and that a
delegation from the national conference was being selected to deliver it to
al-Sadr.
Despite intense security precautions in the fortified Green Zone enclave in
Baghdad, explosions shook the conference hall. A mortar barrage rammed a
commuter bus station nearby, killing two people and wounding 17 others, the
Health Ministry said.
Sporadic fighting occurred in Najaf on Sunday after a two-day truce,
following a week of clashes, ended with the breakdown of negotiations
between al-Sadr and the Iraqi government.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim said late on Sunday that a major
assault by forces will be launched quickly to bring the Najaf fight to an
end
Also on Sunday, foreign and Iraqi journalists and cameramen were ordered out
of Najaf by local police, as authorities said their safety could not be
guaranteed.
ile/ajs
Copyright (c) 2004 Prensa Latina, SA. All rights reserved.
==========================================================
4) DoD: US Military Deaths in Iraq
NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense
No. 782-04
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug 16, 2004
Media Contact: Marine Corps Public Affairs - (703) 614-4309
Public/Industry Contact: (703)428-0711
DoD Identifies Marine Casualties
The Department of Defense announced today the death of two Marines who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Staff Sgt. John R. Howard, 26, of Covington, Va.
Lance Cpl. Tavon L. Hubbard, 24, of Reston, Va.
Both Marines died August 11 in a helicopter crash in Al Anbar Province,
Iraq.
Howard was assigned to Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 166
(Reinforced), 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif.
Hubbard was assigned to the Command Element, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif.
The incident is under investigation.
For further information related to Staff Sgt. Howard, contact the MCAS
Miramar Public Affairs Office at (858) 577-6000. For further information related to Lance Cpl. Hubbard, contact the Camp Pendleton Public Affairs Office at (760)725-5044.
No. 780-04
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug 16, 2004
Media Contact: Army Public Affairs - (703) 692-2000
Public/Industry Contact: (703)428-0711
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sgt. Daniel Michael Shepherd, 23, of Elyria, Ohio, died August 15 in Ar
Ramabi, Iraq, when his M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle hit an improvised explosive device. Shepherd was assigned to the Army?셲 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment from Fort Riley, Kan.
The incident is under investigation.
For further information related to this release, please contact Army Public Affairs at (703) 692-2000.
No. 781-04
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug 16, 2004
Media Contact: Army Public Affairs - (703) 692-2000
Public/Industry Contact: (703)428-0711
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Soldier who
was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Pfc. Brandon R. Sapp, 21, of Lake Worth, Fla., died August 15 in Najaf,
Iraq, when his M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle hit an improvised explosive device. Sapp was assigned to the Army?셲 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
The incident is under investigation.
For further information related to this release, please contact Army
Public Affairs at (703) 692-2000.
No. 778-04
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug 15, 2004
Media Contact: Army Public Affairs - (703) 692-2000
Public/Industry Contact: (703)428-0711
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
1st Lt. Neil Anthony Santoriello, 24, of Verona, Penn., died August 13 in
Khalidiyah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his mounted reconnaissance patrol vehicle. Santoriello was assigned to 1st Battalion, 34th Armor, 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.
The incident is under investigation.
For further information related to this release Army Public Affairs at
(703) 692-2000.
=============================================================
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1013 Mission St. #6, South Pasadena, CA 91030
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**"Report From Baghdad" CD-ROM**
Pacifica Radio KPFK Los Angeles Reporter Lee Siu Hin's July 2003 trip to U.S. occupied Iraq. An interactive CD-ROM with articles, photos, audio and video interviews includes: people of Iraq, U.S. military, human rights workers, religious leaders and more!
Each CD costs: $15.00 plus $3.50 S/H (work both PC and Mac)
The CD sells will be benefit the Baghdad Independent Media Center, ActionLA, and PeaceNoWar.net
*Additional donations are welcome, and it will be tax deductible.
For more information, tel: (213)413-1778 e-mail: info@ActionLA.org
URL: www.ActionLA.org
Send check/money orders to:
ActionLA/SEE
1013 Mission St. #6, South Pasadena, CA 91030
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Peace, No War
War is not the answer, for only love can conquer hate
Please Join PeaceNoWar Listserv, send e-mail to: mailto:peacenowar-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
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*Drop Bush, Not Bomb!
*Think Locally, Act Globally!
*No Blood for Oil! No Immigrant Bashing!
*Health Care Not Warfare!
*Books Not Bombs!!
Stand Up! Get Up! Fight for Peace and Justice!
For more information about your local antiwar protests,
We are planning to print postcards, banners and posters for community antiwar/peace education projects. Send your donations to:
ActionLA/SEE
1013 Mission St. #6 South Pasadena, CA 91030
(at the memo line write donations to ActionLA, all donations are tax deductible)
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