Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Al-Sistani to lead backers in march on Najaf
Al-Sadr supporters fired on while rallying in nearby city of Kufa

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 9:44 p.m. ET Aug. 25, 2004


NAJAF, Iraq - Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani, Iraq’s most powerful religious leader, made a surprise return to the country Wednesday and immediately called on Shiite Muslims to march with him on Najaf in a bid to peacefully end the uprising there.

Al-Sistani is heading to Najaf “to stop the bloodshed,” said Al-Sayyid Murtadha Al-Kashmiri, a representative in London. “Those believers who wish to join him, let them join.”

Aides said al-Sistani would unveil an initiative to get Shiite rebels out of the revered Imam Ali mosque, where U.S. and Iraqi government fighters have been battling supporters of a radical Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, in the city for the past three weeks. They gave no details.

Dressed in a black robe and turban, with a flowing white beard and dark rings under his eyes, al-Sistani arrived in the southern city of Basra from Kuwait in a convoy of more than a dozen vehicles led by police cars with sirens wailing. He plans to head to Najaf, his adopted home, on Thursday.


After meeting with al-Sistani, Basra Gov. Hassan al-Rashid told reporters that the cleric would lead a march Thursday to Najaf. “The masses will gather at the outskirts of Najaf, and they will not enter the city until all armed men, except the Iraqi policemen, withdraw from the city,” he said.

Al-Sistani, 73, had been in London for medical treatment since Aug. 6, one day after clashes erupted in Najaf. The cleric wields enormous influence among Shiite Iraqis, and his return could play a crucial role in stabilizing the crisis.

“The Americans have been surrounding the shrine for days, and al-Sadr’s followers stayed barricaded and determined. This march is the only way for both sides to save face,” said Mohammad Bahr al-Uloum, an independent Shiite cleric.

Allawi, al-Sadr welcome top cleric
Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s office issued a statement welcoming al-Sistani back “on behalf of all Iraqis.” Al-Sadr’s forces said they would suspend fighting in every region he passes through on his way to Najaf.

In Shiite areas across Iraq, appeals issued from mosque loudspeakers urging Iraqis to heed al-Sistani’s call. In the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, many left for Najaf in cars and buses in answer to a call from the mosques to “help stop the bloodshed.”


Abdel Hadi al-Daraji, an al-Sadr spokesman in Baghdad, followed that call with one of his own for all Muslims to march on Najaf.

“I call on all my Sunni brothers and also our brothers in all of Iraq’s provinces to immediately head to Najaf and to protect the shrine,” he said on Al-Arabiya television.

Najaf’s police chief, Maj. Gen. Ghalib al-Jazaari, cautioned Iraqis not to come to Najaf, saying they should await instructions from al-Sistani, “because their enemies could cause them a disaster and they could put their lives in danger.”

Al-Sadr supporters fired on in Kufa
Meanwhile, in the neighboring city of Kufa, new violence killed several people as protesting supporters of al-Sadr were fired on, possibly by Iraqi national guardsmen. The marchers carried pictures of al-Sadr as well as of al-Sistani.

Videotape from Associated Press Television News showed demonstrators wounded during a few minutes of heavy gunfire. An employee at Kufa’s Furat al-Awsat Hospital said two marchers were killed and five others were wounded.

No one in the crowd could be seen firing a weapon, and it was unclear whether the incident was a gunbattle or an unprovoked attack on the demonstration. Witnesses said the gunfire appeared to come from an Iraqi National Guard post, which sat behind concrete blast walls along the parade route.


Earlier in the day, Najaf Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi said Iraqi security forces had “taken all needed measures to prevent any crowds from entering the province,” calling it a “military area.”

The demonstration by hundreds of al-Sadr supporters was headed to Najaf from Kufa, with plans to break the U.S.-led siege there, witnesses said.

The demonstrators’ chants praised al-Sadr and condemned Allawi as “a coward” and an American collaborator.”

In another development, extremists claimed Wednesday to have kidnapped a brother-in-law of Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan, saying he would be killed unless military operations in Najaf ceased. Last week, Shaalan spoke harshly about ending the militant resistance in Najaf and the occupation at the Imam Ali Shrine.

Shiite schism
A younger generation of Shiite nationalist clerics and politicians who feel let down by a largely non-political religious establishment has backed al-Sadr while still acknowledging al-Sistani as a more senior and scholarly figure.

Al-Sistani has been under pressure to condemn U.S. military force around the Imam Ali Shrine, where hundreds of Iraqis have died in three weeks of clashes.

“The ayatollah is trying to set things right. The popular forces in Iraq have been astonished by his silence over the American use of brute force, although we understand that as a traditional religious elder he prefers subtlety,” said Ali al-Lami, a Shiite politician sympathetic to al-Sadr.

“Al-Sistani realizes that the uprising will not end by killing a few hundred fighters in Najaf. Late or not, the march or anything to stop the killing of Iraqis is welcome at this point,” he said.

If protests called by al-Sistani against U.S. political plans for Iraq months ago are anything to go by, hundreds of thousands of Shiites could march on Najaf.

Regardless of the turnout, some Iraqis are optimistic for the first time that the conflict could be solved peacefully, an outcome that would shore up support for al-Sistani. But among the young and unemployed, there is still skepticism.

“All the elder clerics left Najaf to make it easier for the United States to finish off al-Sadr,” said Jabbar Hashem, who is from a poor, east Baghdad district. “They did not really care how many people got killed.”

Continued fighting
In Najaf, meanwhile, heavy shooting broke out near the shrine Wednesday.

The fighting came after the interim Iraqi government warned al-Sadr loyalists to surrender and leave by Tuesday or die. But there was no sign of the threatened final ground push from Iraqi forces. On Tuesday, the Iraqi forces moved to within 200 yards of the shrine.


The militant force, which has waged fierce battles with U.S. troops throughout the Old City and Najaf’s vast cemetery, seemed considerably diminished in number and less aggressive after days of U.S. airstrikes and relentless artillery pounding.

At one point, al-Sadr agreed to hand over the keys to the shrine to al-Sistani’s representatives to end the conflict, but those negotiations bogged down amid renewed fighting.

U.S. warplanes bomb Fallujah
Meanwhile, witnesses in Fallujah said U.S. warplanes strafed targets at least 15 times on the city’s eastern outskirts, and strong explosions could be heard. Militants fired anti-aircraft guns in response as U.S. aircraft approached.

At least four people were killed and four others were wounded in the bombings, said Dr. Adel Khamis of Fallujah General Hospital.

A Marine spokesman, Lt. Col. Thomas V. Johnson, said several insurgent “firing positions ... have been struck this morning with tank fire, and, yes, aircraft were also used against the targets.”

It was the second day in a row that U.S. forces struck at the city, which is 40 miles west of Baghdad. U.S. forces have routinely bombed targets it describes as insurgent safehouses or strongholds.

Sunni Muslim insurgents based in Fallujah are believed to be responsible for months of kidnappings, bombings and shooting attacks against coalition troops, Iraqi forces and civilians across Iraq.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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