Remember several months past when a first-time middle eastern poster questioned where he might go to get the fabric used by our military? He was treated to a courteous brush-off by our group. So I wasn't shocked this morning when I read the following Associated Press news article. It seems someone was successful in getting even more than fabric. (Also, the copiers must have some big financial bucks to afford black sport utility vehicles and plenty of munitions.) Anyway, as I read the article, the coincidence struck me. Sharon
Monday, Jan. 22, 2007 9:21 a.m. EST
Iraqi Attackers Wore U.S. Uniforms
Iraqi gunmen used classic sleight of hand as they ambushed and killed five U.S. soldiers at a security meeting in the Shiite holy city of Karbala.
Dressed in military uniforms and driving black sport utility vehicles commonly used by official U.S. convoys and foreign dignitaries, the militants were waved through a police checkpoint at the outskirts of the city Saturday. Police even radioed ahead to the provincial governor's office to tell the guards to expect visitors.
The insurgents then broke into the building using percussion bombs and killed five U.S. soldiers and captured two others, said provincial governor Akeel al-Khazaali. Iraqi troops later found one of the SUVs with three dead bodies dressed in military uniforms, he said.
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman, denied any Americans were captured and said all "were accounted for after the action." The five killed in Karbala were among at least 25 American deaths in Iraq on Saturday - the third-deadliest single day for U.S. troops since the war began in March 2003. That total included four soldiers and a Marine killed in violent Anbar province and one soldier killed in a roadside bombing northeast of Baghdad, whose deaths were announced Sunday.
Two Iraqi government officials, meanwhile, said Sunday that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had decided to drop his protection of the feared Shiite militia of an anti-American cleric after U.S. intelligence reports convinced him the armed group was deeply infiltrated by death squads whose actions were isolating him in the Arab world and among moderate political forces at home.
In a desperate bid to fend off a feared all-out American offensive, the cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, last Friday ordered the 30 lawmakers and six Cabinet ministers under his control to end their nearly two-month boycott of the government.
Al-Sadr had already ordered his militia fighters not to display their weapons. They have not, however, ceded control of the formerly mixed neighborhoods they have captured, killing Sunnis or forcing them to abandon their homes and businesses.
Al-Maliki's turnaround on the Mahdi Army was puzzling because as late as Oct. 31, he had intervened to end a U.S. blockade of Sadr City, the northeast Shiite enclave in Baghdad that is headquarters to the militia. It is held responsible for much of the sectarian bloodshed that has turned the capital into a battle zone over the past year.
Sometime between then and Nov. 30, when the prime minister met President Bush, al-Maliki was convinced of the truth of American intelligence reports, two government officials said.
"Al-Maliki realized he couldn't keep defending the Mahdi Army because of the information and evidence that the armed group was taking part in the killings, displacing people and violating the state's sovereignty," said one government official.
"The Americans don't act on rumors but on accurate intelligence. There are many intelligence agencies acting on the ground, and they know what's going on," said the second official, confirming the Americans had given al-Maliki overwhelming evidence about the Mahdi Army's deep involvement in the sectarian slaughter.
© 2007 Associated Press.