Wanted Iraqi cleric 'willing to die' from The Guardian

Radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said today that he was willing to die resisting any attempt to capture him, as US-led occupying forces struggled to contain insurgencies on two separate fronts.

"Struggled". Has something changed in Iraq, am I missing something here? Didn't the coalition take the entire country in record time with the vaulted special Republican guard disappearing like casper the ghost? Sure, these guys got guns and some RPGs but that's it. We got tanks, helicopters, aerial gunships, etc etc. This is an anticipated pain the in the ass. The coalition knew it would have to deal with Sadr sooner or later.

Faced with US vows to hunt him down on a day which saw at least 30 people die in clashes across Iraq, Mr Sadr issued a defiant statement saying that he was willing to shed his own blood for Iraq and denouncing the US president, George Bush

He is not shedding his own blood for Iraq. He is shedding a lot of his dumb followers blood for himself and Iran. Oh, and denouncing Bush, man doesn't that just chill you to the bone? Just another blowhard. I seem to remember all this crap coming from Saddam and look where we found him, in a hole. So Sadr hides in a mosque, big deal. By the way as I write this I hear he has already left the mosque. Seems word got to him that a JDAM had his location.

True to their leader's words, Mr Sadr's black-uniformed Mahdi fighters engaged in gunfights with British troops in the southern town of Amara, in which at least 15 Iraqis have died in the past 48 hours, according to a Ministry of Defence spokewoman in London.

Another 15 Iraqis were killed during firefights between Mahdi insurgents and 500 Italian troops in the town of Nassiriya, according to Paola Della Casa, a spokeswoman for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).


So, tell me again how the coalition is struggling? Seems to me they be killing the bad guys. Wonder why he doesn't mention the number of Italians killed? Probably because there were none killed. A few were slightly wounded.

War is hell and dying is terrible but we have to finish the job for the Iraqi people. Look at these figures:

In Baghdad, a US soldier was killed during renewed clashes in a Shia stronghold, and a further two died yesterday, the military said. The deaths brought the total number of US casualties in the capital since Sunday to 11. Local health officials said 66 Iraqis had died in the same period, and a further 317 had been injured.

A six to one kill ratio with 317 wounded. You win wars that way. By the way wounding is far more preferable. Not only do you spare life that way, it takes 4 people to look after one wounded. You tie up enemy forces that way.

Mr Sadr has mobilised his forces in Baghdad and across the mainly Shia south of Iraq following the arrest last week of his deputy, Mustafa Yacoubi, and the closure of his newspaper by the US-led authorities.

His "forces" consists of thugs, old Saddam loyalist, Iranian mercenaries and idiots.

In a further threat to US-led efforts to bring order to Iraq, an audio tape purported to be from senior Al Qaida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, pledged to carry out more attacks on US troops there.

How is it a further threat? It is the same threats they have faced since they went into Iraq.

Just the usual garbage from the Gulag, er, Guardian.