[TimeStar] April Forecast Success

Wed Apr 7 13:06:39 EDT 2004

TimeStar's forecast that the historical trend heading for a peak in April
would take the form of religion and violence, assuming this has been the
habit of Judao-Christian and Muslim relations for over 4,000 years. 
Violating every principle of America's founding constitution, under the
Bush Administration the U.S. has ignored the majority wishes of Iraqis and
violently attacked their religious institutions.

The TimeStar forecast was based on the prevalent historical trend and did
not foresee an economic collapse as likely, as others had predicted.  This
forecast did not reference political or religious bias and druthers.

Krsanna

U.S. HITS MOSQUE COMPOUND; 40 SAID KILLED
The Associated Press

FALLUJAH, Iraq April 7 - U.S. Marines in the third day of a battle to
pacify this Sunni Muslim city fired rockets that hit a mosque compound
filled with worshippers Wednesday, and witnesses said as many as 40 people
were killed. Shiite-inspired violence spread to key cities in Iraq. 
The fighting in Fallujah and neighboring Ramadi, where commanders confirmed
12 Marines were killed late Tuesday, was part of an intensified uprising
involving both Sunni and Shiites that now stretched from Kirkuk in the
north to the far south.

An Associated Press reporter in Fallujah saw cars ferrying the dead and
wounded from the Abdul-Aziz al-Samarrai mosque. Witnesses said a helicopter
fired three missiles into the compound, destroying part of a wall
surrounding the mosque but not damaging the main building.

The strike came as worshippers had gathered for afternoon prayers,
witnesses said. Temporary hospitals were set up in private homes to treat
the wounded and prepare the dead for burial. There was no immediate
confirmation of the number of dead.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that U.S. forces launched
the operation in Fallujah to capture insurgents involved in attacks on
Americans, including the ones who mutilated and burned the bodies of four
U.S. civilians ambushed last week. He said the troops had pictures and
names of those involved and were not attacking the town as a whole.

But militants, who have wide support among the population, dug in and
fiercely resisted the U.S. raids into the city center and attacked American
troops encircling the city of 200,000. The intensity of the resistance
apparently prompted U.S. forces to bring in heavy weapons such as
helicopters, tanks and AC130 gunships that have pounded suspected militant
sites in the densely populated neighborhoods.

Until the mosque attack, 30 Americans, two other coalition soldiers and
more than 190 Iraqis had been killed in fighting across the country since
Sunday.

U.S. Maj. Gen. Mark Kimmitt vowed to "destroy" the militia of radical
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, which has been behind the wave of attacks
and street fighting with coalition troops in southern cities and Baghdad
this week.

But al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army launched heavy gunbattles with coalition forces
in the streets of three southern cities Wednesday and, for the first time,
in the north. Al-Sadr fighters battled American troops in the town of
Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, hitting a U.S. helicopter with small arms
fire. The OH-58 Kiowa chopper was damaged and forced to land, but the two
crewmembers were unharmed.

And Shiite gunmen drove Ukrainian forces out of the southern city of Kut
raising concerns over the ability of U.S. allies to control al-Sadr's
uprising.

After gunbattles overnight killed 12 Iraqis, the Ukrainians withdrew from
Kut, and al-Sadr followers swept into their base, seized weapons stores and
planted their flag on a nearby grain silo.

The black-garbed gunmen of the al-Mahdi Army also had virtual control of
Kufa and Karbala, where Iraqi police lay low, allowing militiamen to move
freely and acting only to prevent looting. Militiamen in Karbala clashed
with Polish patrols that moved through their areas, and a cleric who was a
senior official in al-Sadr's office in the city was killed.

Al-Sadr and his militia are unpopular among most of Iraq's Shiite majority,
and there was no sign that the Shiite public in the south was rallying to
their side to launch a wider popular uprising.

But the week's fighting showed a strength that few expected from the
al-Mahdi Army, and moderate Shiite clerics and leaders have not raised
their voices strongly against the uprising.

And there were signs of sympathy for the Sadr revolt by Sunni insurgents,
who have been fighting the U.S.-led occupation for months and have often
chided their Shiite countrymen for not joining in.

Portraits of al-Sadr and graffiti praising his "valiant uprising" appeared
on mosque and government building walls in the Sunni city of Ramadi.
Peaceful protests in support of al-Sadr occurred in the northern cities of
Mosul and Rashad.

Monday night in Baghdad, al-Sadr gunmen went to a mainly Sunni neighborhood
to join with insurgents there in firing on U.S. Humvees the only known
instance so far of Sunni and Shiite militants joining forces.

Anger was also spreading over the three-day U.S. siege of Fallujah, one of
the Sunni insurgents' strongest bastions, west of Baghdad. Iraqis
protesting the operation clashed with U.S. troops outside the northern city
of Kirkuk in fighting that left eight Iraqis dead and 10 wounded.

The 12 Marines were killed Tuesday in Ramadi, where Maj. Gen. James Mattis,
1st Marine Division commander, said his forces still were fighting
insurgents that included Syrian mercenaries along a one-mile front.

In Fallujah, dozens of insurgents carrying RPGs and automatic weapons,
their faces wrapped in scarves, dug in around an eastern entrance to the
city, setting up sandbags, with Marines only a few hundred yards away
outside the city.

Marines making incursions toward the city center battled gunmen in the
streets. Mosque loudspeakers blared calls for jihad, or holy war, and women
were seen carrying guns in the streets.

Sixteen children and eight women were reported killed when warplanes struck
four houses late Tuesday, said Hatem Samir, a Fallujah Hospital official.

The fighting began at the start of the week when the Marines surrounded
Fallujah.

On Tuesday, however, insurgents opened a new front with the bloody attack
in Ramadi that killed the 12 Marines.

Gunmen hiding in Ramadi's main cemetery opened fire on U.S. patrols,
sparking a gunbattle in alleys near the governor's palace, witnesses said,
adding that at least two Iraqis were killed.

Kimmitt, the U.S. military's deputy head of operations, said the United
States would press the offensive, both in Fallujah and Ramadi and against
al-Sadr's followers.

"The coalition and Iraqi security forces will continue deliberate, precise
and powerful offensive operations to destroy the al-Mahdi Army throughout
Iraq," he said in Baghdad, adding that coalition forces would prevent
militiamen from seizing police stations and government buildings.

He called for the surrender of al-Sadr, who is named in an arrest warrant
for involvement in the murder of a rival Shiite cleric almost a year ago.
"He can turn himself into a local Iraqi police station and he can face
justice," Kimmitt said.

Despite the call, there was no sign al-Sadr's forces had eased their
attacks:

Militiamen battled Spanish soldiers in Najaf, south of Baghdad. An Iraqi
taxi driver was killed in the crossfire, a hospital official said.

Clashes erupted overnight in Baghdad's Sadr City, killing four Iraqis and
wounding seven others, doctors said.

Militiamen traded fire with Polish troops in Karbala overnight, killing two
Iranian tourists, witnesses said.

Gunmen attacked a police car Tuesday night in Youssifiya, south of Baghdad,
killing two policemen.

With confirmation of the 12 dead Marines, the American death toll since the
war was at least 626.

photo credit and caption: U.S. Marines with the 2nd Battalion 1st Marine
Regiment in military vehicles leave from their base to patrol in the
outskirts of Fallujah, Iraq, Wednesday, April 7, 2004. Hundreds of U.S.
Marines attacked several neighborhoods in the western Iraqi city of
Fallujah in order to regain control of the city. (AP Photo/Murad Sezer)

--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .