NationStates Jolt Archive


Al Anbar begins quiet military mobilization

03-02-2004, 03:25
Al Jazeera Satellite Channel

A news reporter appears on the television screen atop the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.

"This is Saami Ahmed reporting from Baghdad, Iraq."

"It has been an interesting day in Al Anbar. We travelled to Tikrit and al-Qut, where we are continuing to see a massive military build up and preperations by the Iraqi government."

"Here in Baghdad and in Tikrit, new SAM sites have been put up all around the city, including AAA guns in the streets, atop buildings, and soldiers are seen everywhere."

"We were not allowed to approach either the southern border with the Shi'ite-controlled areas of Iraq and when we asked permission to head north to Mosul, we were also denied permission."

"This comes after the latest rounds of demands on both the Shi'ites and Kurdish autonomous governments to 'cease thinking selfishly and rejoin their brothers and sisters in Al Anbar'."

"The Shi'ite administration has refused to reunite with Sunni-Iraq, but the Kurdish administration has been more welcoming to Saddam Hussein. They have agreed to rejoin Iraq if they are allowed certain privilages within the government."

"The majority of people we interviewed in the three cities we went too wanted Iraq reunited into one country, so it appears Saddam Hussein has clear popular support for reuniting the country through any necessary means."

"That is all from Baghdad. Saami Ahmed for Al Jazeera."

http://www.shwa.org/pix/otrapix/aljazeerareporter.jpg

OOC: For anyone that doesn't know, Al Anbar is made up from more or less Central Iraq and Syria. The Kurds and Shi'ites have their own autonomous area which is not recognized by Al Anbar.