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Breaking News Gunfight In Karbala For

Juan Cole 10/17/2003

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Breaking News: Gunfight in Karbala

For twelve hours from Thursday night into Friday early morning, US military police engaged in a gunfight with Shiite militiamen guarding the home of Ayatollah Mahmud al-Hasani (Mahmoud al-Hassani) in Karbala, near the shrine of Abbas. The MPs are said to have come into Karbala to enforce a curfew. The US army maintains that they were ambushed with sniper fire from atop al-Hasani’s compound. The militiamen used rocket propelled grenades and machine guns. The fighting left 3 MPs dead, 7 wounded, and some Iraqi police are down as well. Townspeople reported that several of al-Hasani’s guards were dead, as well. A US military spokesman said that al-Hasani’s forces had taken part in the fighting last Monday in Karbala between those loyal to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and the Army of the Mahdi of Muqtada al-Sadr. The spokesman said he did not believe al-Hasani fought on the side of the Sadrists.

Other reports said that al-Hasani came this summer to Karbala from Baghdad. He is not a major or well-known figure. But he has been in trouble recently with Polish troops in Karbala. The Spanish news service EFE reported on September 10:

“A ellos se suman informaciones de prensa aparecidas hoy según las cuales soldados polacos mataron a un iraquí e hirieron a tres al abrir fuego el lunes contra una manifestación en la ciudad santa chiíta de Kerbala, al suroeste de Bagdad.

Según el diario Al-Nahda, cuya información no ha sido confirmada, los manifestantes protestaban por una redada realizada por las fuerzas polacas – bajo cuyo mando se encuentran las tropas españolas destacadas en la vecina Diwaniya- en el domicilio de un líder religioso local, el ayatola Mahmud Al-Hasani. ( EFE)”

So this is someone whose house has been searched in the past, probably for weapons, with the search causing demonstrations in Karbala. [I have now concluded he is a Sadrist].

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About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

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