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Iraqis March To Najaf After Sistani’s Plea
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Shiite
Iraqis celebrate the return of Sistani
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Additional
Reporting By Aws Al-Sharqy, IOL Correspondent
BASRA, August 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Hordes of Iraqis
marched to Najaf Wednesday, August 25, responding to a plea by
Iraq
’s top Shiite scholar Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani to 'save the
city and end the
US
siege on its holies shrine'.
Sistani
arrived back in the country earlier in the day, calling on Iraqis to
be ready to join a mass rally to Najaf as fighting around Imam Ali
shrine neared a climax.
Cars
carrying loudspeakers were seen roaming streets of southern Iraqi
cities for rallying supporters. Calls came for forming convoys to
break the seal-off of Najaf – which has been pounded by US warplanes
and helicopter gunships for several days now.
"We
began forming convoys, dozens of which already left for Najaf and
others are on standby for further deployment," Sheikh Abdel-Hai
Jawwad, a member of the Sadr office in Kadhemiya, told
IslamOnline.net.
Jawwad
accused the
US
occupation forces and Iraqi police of attempting to "cleanse
Iraqi fighters opposed to the occupation of the country" in
Najaf.
"Najaf
turned into bloodbath, with explosions crackling everywhere and
US
warplanes pounding all areas, especially around Imam Ali Shrine,"
Hamid Al-Hashimi, a journalist in the city, told IOL over phone.
Young
Shiite leader Moqtada Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army are reportedly fighting
pitched battles with US and Iraqi government forces inside the
mausoleum.
Saving
Najaf
Sistani,
who underwent medical treatment in
London
, crossed into
Iraq
from
Kuwait
and was now resting in a villa owned by his representative in the
southern city of
Basra
.
One
of his senior aides said from
London
that Sistani intended to "save the city" of Najaf.
"I
have had the honor to meet and accompany Sistani, who arrived at the
border at
11:00 am
(0700 GMT)," said Brigadier General Ali Al-Mussawi, head of Iraqi
border police in
Basra
.
"Sistani
is still in
Basra
under the protection of border guards. He is in the home of Abdel
Hakim al-Safi Al-Mussawi," Sistani’s top representative in the
city, Mussawi added.
Haider
Al-Safi Al-Mussawi, a son of Sistani's
Basra
representative, added that the Iranian-born ayatollah had returned to
tackle the situation in An-Najaf.
"I've
come for the Najaf crisis," he quoted Sistani as having said.
The
latest fighting broke out three weeks ago, and saw US and Iraqi
government troops gradually tighten their grip around the complex, at
the risk of sparking Shiite anger by damaging the building.
Najaf
March
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U.S.
Army Bradley fighting vehicles patrol in central Najaf
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Hamad
Al-Khaffaf, another top aide to Sistani, said the Shiite leader has
earlier urged all Iraqis to march towards the holy city.
"We
call on all Iraqis ... of
Baghdad
, Hilla,
Karbala
,
Basra
, Diwaniyah, Amara, Kut,
Kirkuk
,
Mosul
, Baquba and all
Iraq
, to be ready to return to Najaf. An initiative will be announced when
we arrive in An-Najaf,” Khaffaf told Al-Arabiya news channel.
"Now,
our call to Imam Ali bin Abi Taleb, is as follows: We are sorry that
your sacred shrine has been tarnished and violated."
In
Baghdad
, hundreds of Shiite faithful left for An-Najaf to answer Sistani's
call.
"Everybody
respects the Marjaiya (the highest Shiite authority) and everybody is
heading there to save An-Najaf," said Haitham Muhsin, 32, who
heard the call over Arab television.
"Death
is the same, whether I'm here or in Najaf. As Shiites our dream is to
die and be buried there," he added.
Nawar
Hussein, 18, said his mother had not tried to sop him marching for
peace.
"On
the contrary, she told me well done and be careful and let God be with
you."
And
after hearing Sistani was in
Basra
, hundreds of delighted people flocked to the villa here where the
scholar was staying, waving Iraqi flags, vowing to fight a
jihad against the US-led occupation troops at the command of
their spiritual leader.
Fighting
Suspended
Meanwhile,
the Mahdi Army announced the suspension of all military operations in
southern
Iraq
to mark the arrival of Sistani.
"The
Mahdi Army also announces the suspension of all military operations in
the provinces where Ayatollah Sistani will pass," Sheikh Aws
Al-Khafagi, head of Sadr's office in the southern city of
Nasiriyah
, told Aljazeera satellite channel
He
did not explicitly say if the truce would cover Najaf itself.
A
US
plane fired a missile just meters west of it on Wednesday, making the
building tremble and filling it with dust, according to an AFP
correspondent inside.
Al-Jazeera
satellite channel broadcast
Monday, August 23, footage of slight damage done to the outer wall of
the Imam Ali mosque by the
US
bombardment on Sunday night.
US
forces trapped hundreds of Sadr’s fighters the Imam Ali shrine
Wednesday, firing airborne missiles.
With
American snipers posted on rooftops and firing at anyone who tried to
enter of leave, Mahdi Army fighters barricaded themselves behind the
mausoleum's bolted doors.
To
the heavy boom of artillery fire outside and with the sound of Mahdi
Army retaliation growing less and less by the hour, medics launched a
desperate appeal to the Iraqi government for emergency relief.
Doctors
in a makeshift clinic, lacking surgeons and blood supplies, told an
AFP correspondent, one of only three newsmen in the shrine, that at
least 30 patients with serious injuries needed immediate evacuation.
Dozens
of other wounded civilians were feared trapped in nearby houses,
unable to be brought even to the shrine for fear of
US
sniper and tank fire.
Glass
had shattered in the ceiling of part of the prayer room where most of
the wounded were laid out under fans, moaning in pain and on
blood-stained blankets.
All
streets into the
Old
City
around the shrine area had been blocked off and police dropped
pamphlets urging people to use between a path of "peace" and
that of "terror and fear".
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