Where’s the Outrage?

Like the Tet offensive in Vietnam, the size of this attack surprised us but it appears that the we reacted quickly. It will take a couple of days to weeks to get the real story.  Did we kill or capture most of these guys?  Or did most of them get away?  Did we react as quickly as reported?  Did the Iraqis stand and fight or turn and run?  Reportedly one of the targets of this attack was the Grand Ayatollah Sistani.

This was a bold move.  Obviously, the insurgents thought that they could pull this off. 
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From CNN.com:

A pitched battle between U.S.-backed Iraqi troops and insurgents raged into the early hours Monday after Iraqi officials said they foiled a plot to attack pilgrims and kill leading clerics in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf.

Iraqi interior and defense ministry officials told CNN that an estimated 250 to 300 gunmen had been killed in the fight north of Najaf. They were part of a force of 400 to 600 insurgents who planned a massive siege of Najaf on Tuesday, the culmination of the Shia holy period of Ashura.

Iraqi officials said insurgents planned to seize control of the city and surrounding province and kill top Shia religious figures — including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s most revered Shiite leader.
At least nine Iraqis and two Americans were killed in the battle, which was “90 percent over” early Monday, Najaf police Col. Ali Jraiwi told the state television network al-Iraqia.

Jraiwi said the Iraqis were tipped off that insurgents were gathering near the town of Zarqa, about six miles (10 km) north of Najaf. He said they moved southward among convoys of Shia pilgrims headed for Najaf for Ashura, when Shiites mark the 7th-century martyrdom of the Imam Hussein, the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson.

He said captured fighters told Iraqi authorities they planned to attack senior clerics and the Imam Ali Shrine at the heart of the city. He said insurgents were using small arms, mortars and rockets against Iraqi soldiers and police backed by U.S. troops and aircraft.

A U.S. military helicopter went down during the battle Sunday afternoon, killing two soldiers aboard, the U.S. command in Baghdad said. The military said the cause of the crash is still under investigation, but Iraqi officials said the chopper was shot down by insurgents.

Al-Sistani pushed for early elections after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled former leader Saddam Hussein in 2003 and urged his followers in the majority-Shiite country to turn out and vote. During the years of attacks by Sunni Arab insurgents, he has urged his followers to avoid bloodshed in reprisals.

His killing “would really plunge Iraq and the possibly the rest of the region into a bloodbath,” said Vali Nasr, a professor at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and author of “The Shia Revival,” a recent book on the rise of the sect.

“Ayatollah Sistani is the most revered and the most followed Shia spiritual leader,” Nasr told CNN. “He is like the Shia pope. Shias follow him across the Middle East in religious affairs, and his death at the hands of the insurgents would be of enormous symbolic value.”

The battle began about 5:30 a.m. Sunday (9:30 p.m. Saturday ET). Iraqi police and troops dispatched to go after the insurgents were overwhelmed by the size of the insurgent force, which held well-fortified positions, an interior ministry official said.

The Iraqi forces withdrew after six police were killed and 19 others were wounded, including four Iraqi soldiers and Najaf’s police chief, the official said. The Iraqi commanders then called for U.S. military support, the official said.

Iraqi police based their estimate of insurgent losses on the type of artillery used in the battle and the number of insurgents involved in the fighting, the official said.

Ashura observances had been banned under Hussein. They have been marred by sectarian killings since resuming after his 2003 ouster, with 180 killed in bombings that targeted pilgrims in Baghdad and Karbala in 2004.

 

 Battle outside Najaf [2:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Al Qaeda, Iraq, War on Terror //