{"id":57,"date":"2004-08-10T23:23:03","date_gmt":"2004-08-11T04:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=57"},"modified":"2004-08-26T21:08:09","modified_gmt":"2004-08-27T02:08:09","slug":"us-demands-najaf-militants-end-fighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=57","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Demands Najaf Militants End Fighting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While it is a somewhat interesting twist in an ongoing story, I felt driven to post <a href=\"http:\/\/story.news.yahoo.com\/news?tmpl=story&#038;cid=540&#038;ncid=736&#038;e=1&#038;u=\/ap\/20040811\/ap_on_re_mi_ea\/iraq\" target=\"_blank\">this<\/a> just because I love the quote I&#8217;ve put in bold.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>U.S. forces adopted a new tactic Tuesday in their sixth day of battles in this city south of the capital, sending patrols armed with loudspeakers into the streets to demand that militants loyal to a radical cleric drop their arms and leave Najaf immediately or face death.<\/p>\n<p>The call, broadcast in Arabic from American vehicles, added a psychological component to the U.S. offensive. It came as U.S. helicopter gunships pummeled a multistoried building 400 yards from the gold-domed Imam Ali Shrine with rockets, missiles and 30 mm cannons \u00e2\u20ac\u201d one of the closest strikes yet to what is one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam.<\/p>\n<p>Plumes of thick, black smoke rose from the building, which serves as a hotel for visitors to the shrine. Witnesses said insurgents were firing from inside it and that U.S. forces returned fire.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">&#8220;We&#8217;ve pretty much just been patrolling and flying helicopters all over the place, and when we see something bad, we blow it up,&#8221;<\/span> said U.S. Marine Maj. David Holahan, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines Regiment.<\/p>\n<p>Nearby, Bradley fighting vehicles swept through a huge cemetery, pursuing small pockets of militants hiding in elaborate concrete tombs. Choppers provided support, firing rockets from above, witnesses said. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;m thinking Maj. David Holahan would&#8217;ve made a good tanker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While it is a somewhat interesting twist in an ongoing story, I felt driven to post this just because I love the quote I&#8217;ve put in bold. U.S. forces adopted a new tactic Tuesday in their sixth day of battles in this city south of the capital, sending patrols armed with loudspeakers into the streets [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-military","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}