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Mixed Reports About Najaf Shrine, Fighting Rages
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Imam Ali shrine is now controlled by the Hawza (AFP)
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Additional
Reporting By Aws Al-Sharqy, IOL Correspondent
BAGHDAD,
August 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The US Defense
Department and an aide to Moqtada Al-Sadr said the Shiite leader’s
militiamen are still in control of Imam Ali Shrine Friday, August 20,
despite the Iraqi interim government claims to the opposite.
"Sayyed
Moqtada Sadr is a son of Najaf and leader of the Mahdi Army (militia)
in Najaf. He will not leave Najaf except (through) martyrdom,"
Sheikh Ahmed Al-Shaibani told Al-Jazeera television.
Shaibani
scoffed at government reports that Iraqi police were in control of the
Imam Ali shrine and had detained some 400 militiamen of the Mahdi
Army.
A
US defense official also denied Iraqi government claims.
"Not
a lick of truth to it," the official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP), as saying late
Friday.
"We
are still outside of the shrine, and so are the Iraqi police," he
added.
A
correspondent for AFP at the scene saw Sadr loyalists still holed up
in the shrine late Friday, with no Iraqi police in sight.
In
Baghdad, a spokesman for the interim government claimed earlier that
Iraqi police had arrested some 400 militiamen at the Imam Ali shrine.
"Iraqi
police entered the shrine in Najaf city and all armed militia were
evicted," the spokesman, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
Interior
ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim for his part told CNN International
that 500 militiamen "in poor condition" were prepared to
surrender without a shot being fired and "were escorted from the
shrine".
Asked
where Sadr was, Kadhim replied, "It's possible that he may have
escaped overnight."
Reports
said that sporadic exchanges of fire between US troops and Mahdi Army
echoed through the southern part of the old city, and mortar shells
also fired.
Keys'
Handover
Earlier,
Al-Shaibani said the Mahdi Army was to leave the shrine after handing
over the keys under an agreement with revered scholar Grand Ayatollah
Ali Al-Sistani.
"We
went to Sistani's office this morning to agree on giving up the keys
to the mausoleum. His office called Al-Sistani in London, who agreed
to take the keys," Al-Shaibani told AFP.
"A
delegation from Sistani's office must come to the mausoleum and we
will give them the keys," he added.
"The
visitors, human shields and militiamen will then leave the shrine and
its doors will be closed," he said, without giving a timeframe.
An
official from Sistani's office confirmed the meeting had taken place,
but refused to comment further.
In
a letter circulated in Najaf late Thursday and signed by the firebrand
Shiite leader, Sadr 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". The militia has been running the Imam Ali shrine since
clashes began after the US forces occupied the oil-rich country in
April last year.
The
move also 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 of face
a massive onslaught.
‘Wise’
Maneuver
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Sadr is now seen as
a recognizable face in Iraqi resistance to the US-led occupation (AFP)
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"Handing
over the keys means handing over the administration of this
international landmark to the religious authority. We will be ordinary
people visiting it," said Ahmad Al-Sheibani, an aide to Sadr.
Experts
said the move by the 30-year-old Sadr - now seen as a recognizable face in
Iraqi resistance to the more than one year of US-led occupation of the
country - is meant to put US occupation forces in standoff with the
Hawza, the highest religious authority asked to take control of the
site.
"Sadr
believed hawza is the party qualified to hold the keys of the shrine,
a move also showing compliance with its orders," Sheikh Mohamed
Ali Al-Gisani, close to Sadr, told IslamOnline.net.
Refusing
to call the handover a retreat on the part of Sadr, Shiekh Mohamed
called it a "reflection of the Shiite leader’s wisdom".
At
least 3,800 US and Iraqi government troops have been deployed in
Najaf, where some 1,000 Sadr loyalists are reportedly based.
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.
Ghost
City
With
closed government institutions, shops and roads closed by US forces,
backed by Iraqi police, Najaf has turned into a ghost city, where a
large toll of deaths and wounded was also inflicted by bouts of fierce
fighting.
Al-Gisani
said that many poor families in the 700,000-populated city live in
deteriorating conditions, as Iraqi and US forces have imposed a tight
siege on it.
Electricity
and water were cut in most parts of Najaf for more than 10 days, as
medical supplies and ambulance vehicles were not allowed in as part of
the restrictions.
Seventy
seven people were also killed and 70 others injured after US warplanes
and artillery pounded the Old City of Najaf overnight.
"We
have 77 people killed and 70 reported injured," an official at
the Health Ministry's emergency room was quoted by Agence
France-Presse (AFP) as saying.
The
bombardment was the heaviest since the fighting began on August 5
after the collapse of an earlier truce.
Sadr
asked his followers earlier in the day to continue the bitter fighting
with US-led Iraqi forces, as a relative lull prevailed in Najaf.
"Sadr
has asked his fighters to continue the fight," Al-Sheibani said.
Read
Earlier Developments In Najaf..
Sadr
Turns Over Imam Ali Shrine
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