Najaf

Al Najaf, Iraq

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Najaf is a small town of 200,000

Built around the Mosque ( center )

Najaf is a Holy City

Imam Ali Mosque

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In the middle of the city there is the Shrine of the Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib [cousin of the Prophet] with its resplendent golden dome and minarets. Great quantities of priceless objects, gifts of potentates and sultans, are treasured in the mosque. Ali was the first imam of the Shiites, he died in 661 and is buried here.

Tomb of Ali

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Al Yazdi Medresa school	Wadi es Salaam Cemetery

The has sixty or seventy rooms, immensely deep cellars and brick-lined wells that plummet down some one hundred feet. Young divines read and pray here	The cemetery is called al Wadi es Salaam,winding through the countless brick and cement tombs, some modest, some the size of small mosque-shrines

1st attack

On 29 August 2003

Mossad assassinates Shi'ite leader

95 people killed

On 29 August 2003, immediately after Friday prayers at Imam Ali Mosque in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf, a car bomb was detonated that killed the most prominent Shiite leader, Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, and 95 other worshipers.

Movie clip on bombing

2nd attack

On April 4th , 2004

Israeli operatives organize a protest march on a Spanish outpost

Muslim women march mourning their dead

The protest suddenly turns into a bloodbath

The protestors marched on an fort to protest the closing of a local newspaper and the arrest of an holy Cleric.

Mercenaries on rooftops ambush them as payback for Fallujah

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During the defense of the authority headquarters, thousands of rounds were fired and hundreds of 40mm grenades shot. Sources who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of Blackwater's work in Iraq reported an unspecified number of casualties among Iraqis.

A spokesman for Blackwater confirmed that the company has a contract to provide security to the CPA but would not describe the incident that unfolded Sunday.

3rd attack
April 27 th, 2004

American troops attack in force killing 64 people

Mexican General Sanchez

Sadr's militia has been holed up in Najaf for more than two weeks with US forces massed outside in a standoff described as "explosive" by senior coalition officials

The attack

Seven were killed after a US patrol was attacked, and another 57 were killed when US warplanes destroyed an anti-aircraft gun..

Some of the coffins Tuesday were taken inside the shrine of Imam Ali, one of the holiest sites for the world's Shiites, for special prayers for the dead and then buried in Najaf's main cemetery as the militiamen shouted their support for Sadr.

Some of the alleged " Anti aircraft gunners "

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4th attack
May 2, 2004

Marines shot 20 Iraqis

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5th attack
May 6, 2004

Marines shoot 41 Iraqis

U.S. troops attacked Shi'ite militia forces around the Iraqi holy city of Najaf on Thursday, seizing the local governor's offices and killing 41 fighters, a senior official in the U.S. occupation authority told Reuters

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6th attack
August 7, 2004

Marines kill 300 Iraqis

American forces claimed yesterday to have killed 300 Shia insurgents in Najaf over two days of some of the most intense fighting since the end of the war against Saddam Hussein's regime 16 months ago.

Najaf is littered with innocent dead Iraqis

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7th attack
August 12, 2004

Marines set for massive strike

: Marines prepare for an all out assault on Najaf.

Blackwater Revenge

Blackwater Merc Executed video

Scott Halveson Execution

Blackwater Ambush

Massacre At Najaf

Natalee Holloway

Judicial Index

Najaf maps