NAJAF -
Many parts of Najaf are in the grip of an eerie silence,
despite the US jets flying across clear skies and the
sound of mortar blasts that shake the town. The fighting
has centered around the revered Imam Ali Shrine and
surrounding ancient cemetery.
After three weeks
of often pitched battles between armed followers of
Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and a coalition of Iraqi
and US forces, most shops in Najaf are closed and
commercial activity is all but non-existent as people
wait to see how the drama will unfold. In the latest
twist, supreme Shi'ite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani said that he would return to Iraqi on
Wednesday and ask all Iraqis to "march to Najaf in order
to rescue the city". Sistani has been receiving medical
treatment in London, where he arrived a day after the
latest bout of fighting began three weeks ago.
"We want a stop to this bloodshed in the city of
Najaf," said an aide to Sistani, Sheikh Ali Smaisem. "We
will negotiate with the same delegation from the [Iraqi]
National Conference, and we want them to bring a
representative from the government." Smaisem was
referring to a delegation of eight Iraqi dignitaries who
visited Najaf last week and were unable to broker a
peaceful end to the crisis.
"His eminence Grand
Ayatollah al-Sistani will arrive in beloved Iraq in a
few hours and he will return to the holy city of Najaf
to rescue it from its ordeal," spokesman Hamed al-Khafaf
said in an e-mail sent to The Associated Press in Beirut
on Wednesday morning.
In Najaf, meanwhile, many
streets in the town are blocked to traffic by anything
from scrap metal and concrete to large dirt bags.
Residents say sleep has become a novelty amid
the nightly mortar and machine-gun fire. Houses near the
Imam Ali Shrine have been without electricity or much
water since the clashes began five weeks ago, they say.
They point to buildings which are said to be
home to snipers from Muqtada's Mehdi Army.
Najaf
residents say the US army has warned people living
around the shrine to vacate their homes, and about
10,000 are now empty. Families have either taken refuge
in other parts of the city or left it.
Despite
claims by Iraqi officials, the Mehdi Army appears in
control of the streets leading to the shrine. US and
Iraqi forces are within a few hundred meters of it, but
they have been in that position for some days now
without being able - or wanting - to push forward.
Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi, Muqtada's spokesman in
Baghdad, told Inter Press Service earlier this week that
the Mehdi Army was willing to vacate the shrine itself
and hand it over to religious authorities, but that it
intends to remain within the courtyard of the shrine.
"The courtyard is a place different from the
holy shrine," Obeidi said. "The courtyard contains
several cells that cannot be bombed easily. So these
cells are good shelters for the fighters of the Mehdi
militia."
Iraqi officials have said they intend
to storm Mehdi army positions any time now and "wipe
out" the resistance.
But the Mehdi Army is not
confined to the streets and narrow alleys around the
shrine. A roaming militiaman disguised as a trolley
driver warned two reporters talking on their satellite
phones several kilometers from the shrine to leave
quickly or face the consequences.
The clashes in
Najaf have set off sharp debate over who is to blame for
the violence. "This has nothing to do with the Mehdi
Army," an angry resident said. "There are no members of
the army here. This is the fault of America."
But another man appeared from a neighboring
street to say, "This has been brought upon us by the
Mehdi Army. The reason America is bombing the area is
because they have infiltrated it. They [the Mehdi Army]
are trying to burn Najaf."
One man said he and
his family had left their house after a warning by the
US military last week. They returned Monday to find it
on fire. The cause of the fire was not clear. "I had
just bought a fridge. This was the first year I was
drinking cold water," the house-owner said with a
sarcastic laugh. "It is back again to that," he said,
pointing to a picnic cooler.
Several Najaf
residents have been killed in the conflict. Hospital
officials say most of the victims over the past three
weeks have been civilians. Thirteen-year-old Samir Halim
Abdel Wahab lay bedridden at Najaf General Hospital.
Relatives in the room said he was hit by shrapnel from a
US rocket Monday while out buying bread for the family.
His mother Rahina was in near hysteria. "I was
searching for him for four hours. I went to the market.
I went to the bakery. He was nowhere to be found. I did
not know what to do. I came to the hospital and the
doctor said he was here."
Hospital administrator
Sabah Razi said "dozens" of civilians are brought to the
hospital each day. He could not give figures of how many
injured and dead the hospital had received in the past
three weeks.
Many residents in Najaf, while
deeply religious, say the fight between Muqtada and the
US and official Iraqi forces is a political issue, and
one they wish they could avoid.
"Most people in
the city are civilians," said resident Salem Kamel
Abdullah. "As for the recent disturbances, people
realize these are political problems and wish to have
nothing to do with them. People want to see a peaceful
settlement to the issue."
