“Abandon Their Robes And Turbans”
Iraq is gripped by fears that the slayings this week of two associates of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, could worsen a Shiite power struggle in the country’s oil-rich south.
The killings of the two cleric aides late Thursday in separate shootings within 30 minutes in the southern cities of Basra and Diwaniyah, prompted some clerics to go into hiding or abandon their robes and turbans for their own safety.
At least four other associates of al-Sistani have been assassinated in the holy city of Najaf since June, including one stabbed to death about 30 yards from the house where the Iranian-born al-Sistani lives.
The attacks reflected the precarious security across much of Iraq and suggested that the Shiite-Shiite competition for domination in the south is growing deeper and bloodier.
Additionally, the recent withdrawal of British troops from central Basra to the nearby airport has threatened to allow Iraq’s second- largest city become a free-for-all for rival Shiite factions.
AP
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…and put on a berka. Works for bank robbers here in the US.
September 22nd, 2007 at 6:15 amI can’t believe that Iran would allow mookie to gain control of Basra. I gotta believe this is an Iranian plot.
September 22nd, 2007 at 6:20 amAl-Badr maybe? The Iranians want the shat-al-arab waterway.
It was what started the Iraq-Iran war in the 80’s. Bet you money, that’s what’s at stake here.
On the surface it seems likely Porky al-Sadr is working both sides of the border….I’m listing this in my current event list that I attached to the Syrian Dessert strike. If it is related, we may have lost ears or killings will happen just on suspicion which can be a telling sign.
September 22nd, 2007 at 6:51 am“Iraq is gripped by fears…”
What else is “new” AP? When in history has Iraq not been gripped by fears AP?
Oh, it’s about oil AP? Would that be the same oil UN thugs were receiving to prop up Saddam?
Get a clue AP. This is your blood for oil war in Iraq that has been waged for decades and the US led coalition is finally doing the policing the UN failed to do.
Oops, my bad. I forgot. To the demedia, history didn’t begin until Bush became president and Bush is expected to fix the ills of Iraq in years of what no one else has been able to do for centuries.
September 22nd, 2007 at 7:53 am