Al-Sistani urges massive human surge into Najaf

By Evan Osnos
Chicago Tribune

NABIL AL JURANI / AP Shiites in Basra, Iraq, hoist a picture of Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani, 73, after he returned to southern Iraq yesterday.

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The call for peace from Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani — whose words have sent thousands into the streets in the past — could be a pivotal turn in the showdown between rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.

It raised hopes among some Iraqis of a breakthrough, but also set the stage for a huge and potentially volatile human surge into a city swarming with U.S. troops and Iraqi militants.

Violence in Kufa, just northeast of Najaf, followed al-Sistani's call to action. Early today, The Associated Press reported, a mortar attack on the city's main mosque killed 25 people and wounded 60 others.

Thousands of people were crowded around the mosque at the time and ambulances raced to the scene to take scores of wounded to a nearby hospital. Dead bodies lay around the mosque compound, witnesses said.

	GHAITH ABDUL-AHAD / GETTY IMAGES A car burns yesterday near the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf, Iraq. The car was hit by U.S. fire in one of the main streets leading to the shrine. U.S. commanders said troops killed hundreds of fighters earlier this week in the narrow streets of the city.

Hussam al-Husseini, an aide to al-Sadr, said one mortar shell hit the mosque itself and two others hit near the mosque gates.

It was unclear who fired the mortars.

In the past, al-Sadr has regularly used the mosque to deliver sermons at Friday prayers.

Earlier, al-Sistani, 73, who left Iraq Aug. 6 for heart surgery in London, entered southern Iraq from Kuwait in a convoy guarded by Iraqi police and spent the night in Basra. He set out for Najaf, 230 miles away, early today.

His aides said that once he reaches the holy city, he will lead a march to the shrine of Imam Ali, The Washington Post reported. The shrine has been taken over by al-Sadr's militiamen.

Yesterday, U.S. troops took control of virtually the entire center of war-scarred Najaf. They closed in around the ancient shrine where al-Sadr's rebels, known as the Mahdi Army, have holed up with civilian supporters in the hope that U.S. forces will not assault the holy site. Iraqi government leaders added to already-dire warnings that a final clash could be imminent unless al-Sadr backs down.

"The Mahdi Army is finished," said Najaf's police chief, Maj. Gen. Ghalib al-Jazaari. "Its hours are numbered."

Al-Sadr hasn't been seen in days, and as rumors fly that he has fled the city, some insurgents have been seen leaving Najaf as well.

In earlier battles between al-Sadr and authorities, al-Sistani has applied blame equally to both sides, condemning the use of U.S. firepower in the holy city while his representatives criticize al-Sadr for attacking American forces and fueling bloodshed.

Without addressing the details, al-Sadr's fighters swiftly endorsed al-Sistani's intervention, calling for a cease-fire in every region of the country he passes through on his way from the southern border to his home city of Najaf.

Al-Sadr responded to al-Sistani's call with a command of his own, urging his followers throughout Iraq to join in the journey to Najaf, adding to a potential migration of thousands if supporters turn out in numbers comparable to previous Shiite demonstrations.

By nightfall yesterday, some al-Sistani supporters had already packed into cars and set off for Najaf and Kufa. Others in Baghdad said they were preparing to make the trip.

"I'm ready to go to Najaf with my friends in my own car. ... Somebody should save the shrine," said Ahmed Jassim Mohammed, 27, a photographer in the capital's Sadr City neighborhood. "The Imam Ali shrine is not just a building to us. I reject the presence of the gunmen inside the shrine. Both sides should respect the holiness of the shrine."

Al-Sistani's religious power

"Nobody disobeys Sistani, even during the tyranny of Saddam," Sabir Abu Ali, 67, a trustee of the al Zuwiya Husseni, a Shiite mosque in Baghdad, told Knight Ridder Newspapers. "He has a very high stature by God. Whoever disobeys him will be harmed by God."

Mindful of al-Sistani's enormous capacity for mobilizing crowds, Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, flew to Basra late yesterday to meet with the ayatollah, political sources told The Washington Post. It was not immediately known what the two men discussed.

The current conflict dates to Aug. 5, when a firefight escalated between U.S. Marines and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. Al-Sadr, a young preacher popular among unemployed and disaffected youth, took to the shrine with supporters and demanded that U.S. troops leave the city. He has pledged to hand over keys to the shrine to al-Sistani.

The prospect of large-scale demonstrations emerged when Hamed al-Khafaf, an al-Sistani aide, told the Arab satellite news channel Al Arabiya yesterday that the aging cleric "will lead thousands of followers on a march to holy Najaf."

In January, al-Sistani sparked protests of thousands of Shiites calling for free elections, effectively scuttling a U.S. plan to establish a government formed from representatives chosen by regional caucuses.

Deadly week in Najaf

Momentum has built in recent days against al-Sadr's forces. U.S. commanders told reporters in Najaf of killing hundreds of fighters earlier this week in the narrow, tangled dirt tracks of the city.

Najaf police yesterday announced the arrest of several al-Sadr aides, including top spokesman Sheik Ali Smeisim, whom authorities accused of possessing precious artifacts from the ancient shrine.

At a news conference, police showed an ancient carved mud tile from the shrine that they said Smeisim had with him at the time of his capture.

In what could be a grim foreshadowing of the massive demonstration, violence at a smaller gathering yesterday killed two al-Sistani supporters and wounded five outside an American base in Najaf. Observers at the scene, including an Iraqi man working for Knight Ridder Newspapers, said Iraqi police fired on the unarmed demonstrators as they approached the base chanting for an end to the bloodshed.

In a separate demonstration, 1,500 Shiites loyal to al-Sadr tried to enter Najaf, but were warned away by the Mahdi Army fighters they had come to support.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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