[Marxism] The Najaf cemetery battle

[Louis Proyect]

Cemetery Fight Haunts Some U.S. Troops
'It Doesn't Feel Right Sometimes,' Soldier Says of Eerie, Perilous 
Battle in Najaf

By Karl Vick
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, August 11, 2004; Page A01

NAJAF, Iraq, Aug. 10 -- Bats flapped out of crypts, startling soldiers 
creeping through the cemetery with guns up. Graves opened beneath their 
combat boots. And an old enemy displayed a new professionalism, darting 
in clearly practiced moves between tombstone and mausoleum to stalk the 
Americans from above ground and below.

In the battle to control one of the world's largest graveyards, U.S. 
Marines and soldiers say they are coping with a lot, including lingering 
regret. The vast cemetery in Najaf is sacred to Shiite Muslims, perhaps 
2 million of whom lie buried in miles of desert adjoining the shrine of 
Imam Ali, son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad.

Soldiers involved in the fighting described how many of the most recent 
graves are marked by photos, which crumble when U.S. forces shell the 
cemetery walls to reach the militiamen hiding within.

"Wives, daughters, husbands," said Sgt. Hector Guzman, 28, of the 1st 
Cavalry Division's 5th Regiment. "You just know you're destroying that 
tomb."

The Houston native shook his head. "It doesn't feel right sometimes."

"We feel bad that we're destroying, that we're desecrating graves and 
such," added Staff Sgt. Thomas Gentry, 29, of Altoona, Pa. "That's not 
what we want to do."

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The jumble of tombs, mausoleums and catacombs also made it treacherous 
ground to fight on. Militia fighters hid underground and overhead, 
soldiers and Marines recalled. "Most of the time," Guzman said, "it was 
like jungle warfare, only without the jungle."

Soldiers said the insurgents showed signs that they had been training 
during a cease-fire that had kept violence here to a minimum since early 
June. U.S. units accustomed to the disorganized, hit-and-run strikes of 
insurgents in Baghdad and elsewhere were impressed to see the black-clad 
fighters of the Mahdi Army moving in coordinated units of five: 
typically three armed with rifles, which they fired to provide cover for 
the launch of rocket-propelled grenades, the weapon that has been most 
damaging to U.S. forces in Iraq.

Additional evidence of training: flash suppressors on rifles, simple 
Starlight-brand night-vision scopes and the evacuation of wounded. 
Weapons were secreted throughout the cemetery.

"These people are a trained militia," said 1st Lt. Ronald C. Krepps of 
the 1st Cavalry, who added that one mausoleum contained photos of Mahdi 
fighters performing battle drills.

"More professional," said Miyamasu, the 5th Regiment battalion commander 
whose troops provided Najaf reinforcement. "I don't mean to give them 
too much, but they're good. These guys really make us work to kill them, 
but in the end, they're dead."

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53557-2004Aug10_2.html


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