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Sadr Turns Over Imam Ali Shrine
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Sadr has urged his supporters to continue their bitter fight against US-led Iraqi forces in Najaf
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BAGHDAD,
August 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Moqtada
Al-Sadr’s militiamen Friday, August 20, handed over control of the
holy shrine at the center of a crisis in Najaf, but the Shiite leader
asked his followers to continue the bitter fighting with US-led Iraqi
forces, as a relative lull overlooked the war-ravaged city Friday.
The
move, declared late Thursday, August 19, came a few hours after Iraq
interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi made a "final
call" for Sadr to disarm his militia, withdraw from Imam
Ali Shrine.
Top
aides of Sadr handed over control of the holy shrine to
representatives of
Iraq
's top ayatollah, a spokesman for the anti-US occupation firebrand was
quoted by Reuters as saying.
A
delegation met aides to Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani now to hand
over the keys to the Imam Ali Mosque, Sheikh Ali Al-Shaibani said on
Al-Jazeera Friday.
"Handing
over the keys means handing over the administration of this
international landmark to the religious authority. We will be ordinary
people visiting it," he said.
Asked
if that meant militiamen would leave the shrine, Al-Shaibani said:
"Any militiamen who want to enter it will have to leave his
weapon outside."
In
a letter circulated in Najaf late Thursday and signed by the firebrand
Shiite leader, Sadr refused to disarm his fighters but urged them to
hand over the shrine to the Shiite authorities.
The
letter was addressed to "my dear brothers inside the shrine of
Imam Ali", but no immediate confirmation of its authenticity was
possible.
The
militia has been running the Imam Ali shrine since clashes began after
the
US
forces occupied the oil-rich country in April.
No
Disarming
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Black smoke pours over a mosque in Najaf's old town |
But,
the spokesman said, Sadr was still refusing to disarm his militia, the
Mahdi Army, as demanded by the government to avert an all-out US-led
offensive.
"Moqtada
Sadr has asked his fighters to continue the fight," Al-Shaibani
said in another interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP) in the Imam
Ali shrine.
An
eery calm prevailed in Najaf after an intense overnight bombardment by
US forces of the historic
Old
City
, described as the worst since the conflict flared 16 days ago.
"We
will defend not only the Ali shrine, but also the holy city of
Najaf
, which is as sacred as Makkah," he added.
The
spokesman dismissed Allawi's so-called last call for the militiamen to
disarm, saying the threats were dictated by US Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld and a "government ordered by the Americans".
According
to Reuters, any such assault on Najaf could provoke outrage among
Iraq
’s majority Shiite authority, especially if the
US
occupation forces are involved.
Any
raid to oust fighters from the Imam Ali shrine — especially one that
damaged the holy site — could spark a far larger Shiite outrage, it
added.
Government
accusations that fighters have mined the shrine compound and reports
that women and children were among those inside could further
complicate a raid.
One
of Sadr representatives in
Baghdad
, Abdel-Hadi Al-Darraji, warned that fighting in Najaf could
"ignite a revolution all over
Iraq
."
"We
welcome any initiative to stop the bloodbath in Najaf," he told
Al-Arabiya television. "Otherwise the battle will move to
Baghdad
, Amarah,
Basra
and anywhere in
Iraq
."
Continued
Gun Battles
Blasts
and gunbattles persisted throughout the day Thursday in the streets of
Najaf, where fighters bombarded a police station with mortar rounds,
killing seven police and injuring 35 others.
At
night, at least 30 explosions shook the
Old
City
as a
US
plane hit targets east of the Imam Ali shrine.
In
the impoverished
Baghdad
neighborhood of
Sadr
City
— named for the Shiite leader’s late father — US tanks moved
throughout the streets and helicopter gunships shot at Sadr fighters
from the skies. The fighters claimed five activists and five civilians
were killed.
Fighters
elsewhere in
Iraq
attacked oil facilities in the north and south, fired mortars at US
Embassy offices in the capital, injuring one American, and threatened
to kill two hostages, a Turkish worker and a
US
journalist.
There
was no certainty that the latest offer from Sadr to withdraw would be
implemented, as both sides appeared to be engaged in brinkmanship.
Thursday's
violence came a day after Sadr had accepted an Iraqi delegation's
peace plan for Najaf, demanding he disarm his militia, leave the
shrine and turn to politics in exchange for amnesty.
But
he continued to attach conditions for US guarantees, which the
government rejected and fighting persisted.
Sadr
has repeatedly called for the US-led forces to pack up and leave the
oil-rich country after more than one and a half years of occupation on
what many ordinary Iraqi believe false pretexts.
The
United States
had made case for the invasion the country, which has the world’s
second oil reserves, on claims on finding weapons of mass destruction,
none of which have been found.
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