JP: this oughtta give you a woody:
Mortar Barrage Kills 27 in Kufa Mosque
By ABDUL HUSSEIN AL-OBEIDI
KUFA, Iraq (AP) - A mortar barrage slammed into a mosque filled with Iraqis preparing to march on the embattled city of Najaf, killing 27 people and wounding 63 here Thursday, hours before the nation's top Shiite cleric arrived at the gates of the holy city in a massive convoy hoping to end three weeks of fighting.
``We are now in Najaf,'' said Hamed al-Khafaf, an assistant to the Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani.
In Kufa, Najaf's twin city, unidentified gunmen opened fire from an Iraqi National Guard base on thousands of Shiite Muslim marchers heading to Najaf, killing at least three and wounding 46, witnesses said.
Fierce clashes also continued Thursday in Najaf with U.S. warplanes bombing suspected positions of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and explosions booming across the city.
The violence dampened renewed hopes for a rapid resolution to the three-week crisis that has pitted al-Sadr loyalists against a combined U.S.-Iraqi force. The U.S. military and the insurgents both blamed the other for the mortar barrage on Kufa's main mosque.
Mortar Barrage Kills 27 in Kufa Mosque
By ABDUL HUSSEIN AL-OBEIDI
KUFA, Iraq (AP) - A mortar barrage slammed into a mosque filled with Iraqis preparing to march on the embattled city of Najaf, killing 27 people and wounding 63 here Thursday, hours before the nation's top Shiite cleric arrived at the gates of the holy city in a massive convoy hoping to end three weeks of fighting.
``We are now in Najaf,'' said Hamed al-Khafaf, an assistant to the Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani.
In Kufa, Najaf's twin city, unidentified gunmen opened fire from an Iraqi National Guard base on thousands of Shiite Muslim marchers heading to Najaf, killing at least three and wounding 46, witnesses said.
Fierce clashes also continued Thursday in Najaf with U.S. warplanes bombing suspected positions of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and explosions booming across the city.
The violence dampened renewed hopes for a rapid resolution to the three-week crisis that has pitted al-Sadr loyalists against a combined U.S.-Iraqi force. The U.S. military and the insurgents both blamed the other for the mortar barrage on Kufa's main mosque.
