...Angry Shia from Kadhimiya started stoning American tanks ... the soldiers responded with live fire and, according to unconfirmed claims, killed three bystanders. A few accused the Americans of carrying out the attacks themselves. More blamed them for not preventing them. "The Americans caused this by creating the security vacuum in Iraq," one angry Shia in Kadhimiya said. "Do you really expect us to believe they cannot manage better security than this?" It was a sentiment that was echoed by the Shia's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. ... Private Shia militias had set up their own heavily armed roadblocks outside Karbala. Among them were the Iranian-backed Badr Brigades and the Mahdi Army of Moqtada al-Sadr, who has made threats of armed resistance against the Americans...
On Wed, 3 Mar 2004, joanna bujes wrote:
> Al Jazeera poll, numbers to date:
>
> Who stands to benefit from civil unrest in Iraq?
>
> Neighbouring Arab country :
> 13%
> Neighbouring non-Arab country :
> 3%
> Israel and the US :
> 40%
> Internal Iraqi groups :
> 19%
> Combination of the above :
> 12%
> Unsure :
> 13%
>
> Number of pollers : 15113
>