Two articles in the same newspaper reporting some very bad news for rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. First, Riyadh al-Nouri, al-Sadr's brother-in-law and a key lieutenant was captured by American troops in Najaf during clashes that cost many militiamen their lives.
Second, a framing attempt is backfiring. US troops have earlier been blamed for small damage to the Imam Ali mosque, but it's been clear who is benefiting from bullet holes in this sacred place. Now a leading Shiite cleric is openly accusing al-Sadr's militia for firing on the mosque in an attempt "to agitate world opinion against the coalition":
Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Mehri, the Kuwaiti representative of Iraq’s most powerful Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, said the Sadr militia fired a mortar shell at the dome of the shrine but missed it and hit a wall instead.
Ayatollah Mehri called the attack "a cowardly act" and said Sadr loyalists should not use the shrine for storing their weapons and as a sanctuary.
"We want to tell the world, and America, that Muqtada al-Sadr is not one of us, and this is a conspiracy against Shiites so that we don’t get any [political] rights," Ayatollah Mehri said, referring to Shiite demands for greater political representation in the new Iraq.
Any attack on the holy site would be seen as deeply provocative by Shiite Muslims.
Ayatollah Mehri represents Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the pre-eminent Shiite religious leader in Iraq.
"The average Iraqi is positive to our presence, and glad for the job we do"
Don't miss Bjørn Stærk's discussion of a net interview with some of the Norwegian soldiers in Iraq. Our troops say they do a good and necessary job, they rebut quite a bit of the nonsense from back home, and they have a hell of a lot more backbone than our politicians and pundits.
Yeah, I meant to provide a translation of that interview a long time ago. Unfortunately, I find translation work very boring. Good thing Bjørn is less lazy than me.
