5 August 2004, about 01:00–11:00
The police station at Revolutionary Circle
A fragile June truce has left Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army (Jaysh al-Mahdi; the Marines called it the 'Muqtada Militia') in control of the Old City, the Imam Ali Shrine and the vast Wadi al-Salam cemetery, all off limits to Coalition troops. The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Col. Anthony Haslam), which took over the province on 31 July, has already clashed with militiamen near al-Sadr's house on 2 August. At about 1 a.m. on 5 August militiamen attack the Iraqi police station at Revolutionary Circle, where Routes Hartford and Miami meet, about 1,500 m east of the shrine; the police beat off this and a second attack, then a third. At the governor's request Lt. Col. John Mayer sends a reinforced task force from Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marines: Combined Anti-Armor Team A and the mortar platoon (fighting as infantry) north and east of the circle, the LAV-25 platoon picketing west, and two platoons of Company C holding the south side and the station. Fire comes from a four-story building and from the cemetery's walls and tombs; a Marine UH-1N Huey is hit near Route Miami and comes down, its crew recovered. Sgt. Moses Rocha is killed on the recovery convoy.
5 August, 18:00 – 7 August, 07:00
Into the Valley of Peace
At 6 p.m. Companies C and A and the mortar platoon cross into Wadi al-Salam, one of the world's largest cemeteries, behind its five-foot wall along Route Miami: a maze of narrow lanes, multi-story family tombs, crypts and tunnels where militiamen fire and vanish. One mortar section, left isolated when a halt order fails to reach it, is covered as it pulls back by Sgt. Yadir Reynoso, who is killed (he was later awarded the Silver Star). An AC-130 works overnight. On 6 August the attack goes west through the cemetery, parallel to Route Hartford, with the tank platoon and both anti-armor teams fighting along Hartford and Diagonal Road and the reconnaissance platoon holding the Route Favre–Nova junction to the north; LCpl. Larry Wells is killed by a sniper. Bombs dropped on a militia command building reportedly kill much of a local leadership group. Estimating 2,000–4,000 militiamen ahead, Mayer halts and asks for reinforcements; at 7 a.m. on 7 August the advance is stopped and the Marines pull back. The exclusion zone round the shrine is cut from 1,000 m to 300 m.
7–12 August
The Cavalry arrives
The Army sends two 1st Cavalry Division battalions under the MEU. Task Force 1-5 Cavalry (Lt. Col. Myles Miyamasu) arrives on 7–8 August and begins search-and-destroy sweeps through the cemetery north of the shrine, its tanks and Bradleys grinding down lanes between mausoleums; Task Force 2-7 Cavalry (Lt. Col. James Rainey) follows days later, working the western cemetery and the city south of the Old City. On 9 August a planning meeting at the governor's compound is broken up by mortar fire, and command passes from the Polish-led division to I Marine Expeditionary Force. Talks are tried and fail; on 12 August Company C, the reconnaissance platoon, CAAT A and Iraqi National Guard platoons of the 405th Battalion raid the area of al-Sadr's house, clinic and school. U.S. Army Special Forces Capt. Michael Tarlowski is killed at the school, which is then destroyed from the air.
13–20 August
The cemetery and the Kufa raids
For a week the battalions wear the militia down. In the cemetery, U.S. troops clear tombs and tunnels at close range; on 15 August a militiaman climbs onto an Army tank and fires into its turret, killing 2nd Lt. James Goins and Spc. Mark Zapata. Company A, 2-12 Cavalry's tanks fight alongside the Marines, and a Company B platoon attached to the Army loses Sgt. Harvey Parkerson III to mortar fire on 18–19 August. To the north-east, around Kufa — believed to be the militia's supply base — Iraqi commandos raid the Imam Salah Mosque on 13 August with the MEU's Maritime Special Purpose Force and CAAT B in the cordon (Iraqi leaders did not want foreigners inside a mosque); Company B raids the Kufa technical college on the night of 18–19 August, and Company A the Kufa police station on 20 August, each reportedly killing dozens of militiamen. The Kufa sites are placed approximately.
21–23 August
Across the Ring Road
With a final plan agreed on 21 August and rehearsed on the 22nd before Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz and Lt. Gen. James Conway, the cordon closes on the Ring Road round the Old City. An armored probe crosses the Ring Road from the north at about 1 a.m. on 22 August, its tanks firing into a parking garage suspected of holding weapons. 2-7 Cavalry fights in from the south and east: Cougar Company into the south-west corner, Apache and Comanche north through the south-east of the Old City, and Comanche on north to cut the Medina off from the Kufa road. By 23 August 2-7 Cav is less than 100 m from the Medina. After an artillery preparation of more than 500 rounds from FOB Hotel, BLT 1/4 attacks after dark on the 23rd along the western approach, a line of modern hotels and parking garages on two parallel roads.
24–25 August
The ring round the Medina
By 24 August the ring is set: 1-5 Cavalry on the northern edge of the Medina, the Marines on the north-west, Apache Company on the east, Comanche on the south-east, Cougar near the southern edge and 2-7 Cav's 'Desert' element on the western border, facing the open ground. Company C has a foothold in a hotel, entered from an amphibious assault vehicle and fought for floor by floor, with the reconnaissance platoon clearing the basement; ten Marines are wounded taking it. Company A fights into the Old City on Company C's left; LCpl. Alexander Arredondo is killed by a sniper on the 25th. Iraqi National Guard battalions trained for the final assault are to be the only force to enter the shrine itself.
26 August
A hundred metres from the Golden Dome
The cordon is now less than 100 m from the shrine in places. Air Force F-16s reportedly drop precision bombs on two hotels near the shrine used by the militia, and the fighting has badly damaged the Old City round the mosque, though the shrine itself is reported to have suffered only superficial damage. Early that morning mortar fire hits the crowds at the main mosque in Kufa. In the afternoon Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's senior Shia cleric, returns to Najaf from medical treatment in London with a march of tens of thousands of followers. That night al-Sadr accepts his five-point plan — Najaf and Kufa to be weapons-free, foreign forces to leave Najaf, the police to take charge of security, compensation for victims, and a census ahead of elections — and the government agrees; a ceasefire is called.
27 August
Pilgrims replace soldiers
On Friday morning the Mahdi Army fighters leave the shrine mingled with the crowds of pilgrims, and none are detained; the keys of the shrine pass to al-Sistani's representatives and Iraqi police take over security. That evening U.S. troops pull back from positions as close as 200 m to the mosque. Al-Sadr is not arrested. By one count seven Marines and three soldiers from other units were killed in the three weeks, with many more wounded; hundreds of militiamen died, and the Old City, its hotels and the cemetery bore heavy damage. A final agreement with al-Sadr's movement followed later in the year.
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