Sunday, July 20, 2003

Enter the Shi'ites

From The Age (Australia)

Thousands of Iraqi Shi'ites rose up in anger today against the coalition forces after a cleric hostile to the US occupation claimed soldiers had besieged his home.

Fiery protests erupted in Baghdad, the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf and the southern port of Basra where three protesters, including a cleric, were wounded when demonstrators mobbed a civilian vehicle.

The outpouring came in the name of Moqtada Sadr, the son of a charismatic Shi'ite religious leader assassinated by agents of Saddam Hussein in 1999, who has rocketed to fame in the chaos and power vacuum of post-war Iraq.

All thoroughly predictable—to anyone but our fruitcake administration... Is Wolfie still in-country?