[News] Muqtada al-Sadr's Baghdad office bombed

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Muqtada al-Sadr's Baghdad office bombed

Monday 10 May 2004 8:02 AM GMT

US aircraft have bombed the office of Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr in the 
Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

Witnesses said a US aircraft dropped at least one bomb on the one-storey 
office around 2:00am on Monday (22:00 GMT on Sunday) and virtually 
destroyed it.

There was no immediate comment from the US military, which reported 19 
members of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army were killed in a series of clashes in the 
impoverished Shia neighbourhood on Sunday.

US forces had raided an office in the early hours of Sunday and arrested 
two people, one of them said to be a Mahdi Army financier, US military 
spokesmen said.

The raid was part of a stepped up military campaign against an uprising 
launched by al-Sadr against US-led occupation forces a month ago.

Meanwhile, a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq 
(SCIRI), Shaikh Sadr al-Din al-Qubanchi has announced that al-Sadr's Mahdi 
Army will withdraw from Najaf this week in an attempt to ease the tension 
prevailing in the city.

Speaking to a press conference in Najaf, al-Qubanchi called upon the 
residents themselves to take control of the city.

Al-Qubanchi has guaranteed occupation forces and tanks will not enter the 
city, upon an agreement approved by the four main religious authorities in 
Najaf.

And in al-Nasiriya, the director of al-Sadr's office said that the al-Mahdi 
Army withdrew from the city on Sunday night.

Foreigners killed

The action comes after Italian forces released a member of al-Sadr's 
office, Shaikh Muayyad al-Asadi, Aljazeera's correspondent in al-Nasiriya 
reported, quoting sources from al-Sadr's office in the city.

Italian troops detained al-Asadi a few days ago after raiding his home, the 
correspondent added.

Earlier on Monday, a South African and an Iraqi were killed and a New 
Zealander seriously wounded in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, a police 
official said.

Gunmen opened fire with AK-47 rifles in a drive-by shooting on the victims' 
vehicle as they were leaving their residence in oil-rich Kirkuk, 250km 
north of Baghdad.

The foreigners were engineers and the Iraqi was their driver, the official 
said. He did not elaborate.

Resistance fighters have been waging a violent campaign of bombings and 
shootings against US-led troops, Iraqi police, security forces and 
civilians since former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was toppled last April.

Aljazeera + Agencies


You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A73367E8-00FA-49EC-AA81-F3866ED524D2.htm 



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