Iraqi Conference urges militia to leave shrine
Delegates at Iraq’s National Conference called on radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to abandon his uprising against US and Iraqi troops and pull his fighters out of a holy shrine in Najaf.
Leading the call was Shiite cleric Hussein al-Sadr, a distant relative to the cleric.
Muqtada’s forces are currently holed up in the shrine compound in Najaf, home to the Imam Ali shrine, one of Shia Islam’s most sacred sites. US forces have clashed with militants around the area for over a week.
“We demand Muqtada al-Sadr withdraw from the holy shrine because it’s not the specific property of one person,” Hussein al-Sadr told the conference. “It belongs to everybody. Shrines should not be controlled by one man, regardless of his status.”
The majority of delegates then raised their hands in favour of Hussein al-Sadr’s proposal to send a delegation to Najaf to meet with Muqtada al-Sadr and ask him to stop fighting and join the political process instead.
“The door is very open to all Iraqis, regardless of their religion, ethnic background, to join the free political process,” Hussein a-Sadr said.
Delegates said some of Muqtada al-Sadr’s people attended the conference today for the first time since it began yesterday.
Muqtada al-Sadr and his followers have fought US and Iraqi forces from within the shrine compound of Najaf for over a week, and fighting has spread to other parts of the country.
Iraq’s volatile security situation has been a constant theme during the conference. Many delegates have voiced opposition to working on democratic progress while the country was wracked with insurgency and military operations by coalition troops.
Today, Falah Hassan, from the Shiite Political Council, walked out of the conference, following an ultimatum his group issued on Sunday that his delegates would leave if US troops did not pull out of Najaf within 24 hours.
The rest of his group remained at the conference, however.
