Al-Sistani to lead Najaf 'peace march'
Iraq’s top Shiite cleric is on his way to Najaf today, armed with a new peace initiative and a call for Iraqis to march on the holy city, after he unexpectedly returned home from Britain.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini Al-Sistani, who wields enormous influence among Shiite Iraqis, had previously refused to get involved in resolving the violent conflicts plaguing the nation, and it was unclear why he suddenly changed his mind.
But his dramatic return yesterday from a nearly three-week trip to London, where he had gone for medical treatment, spread optimism that the crisis could be resolved peacefully.
In an effort to show support for peace, al-Sistani “will lead thousands of followers on a march to holy Najaf”, Hamed al-Khafaf, an al-Sistani aide, told the Arab satellite television station Al-Arabiya. “We call upon all devout Iraqis who follow him” to prepare to head to Najaf.
Basra governor Hassan al-Rashid told reporters the peace march would take place today. “The masses will gather at the outskirts of Najaf and they will not enter the city until all armed men, except the Iraqi policemen, withdraw from the city,” he said.
Despite al-Sistani’s call for peace, heavy fighting persisted in Najaf’s Old City, the centre of many of the clashes between militants loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and a combined Iraqi-US force. Last night, US warplanes bombed the area for the fourth night in a row and fierce skirmishes broke out. Huge blasts sporadically shook the city, and smoke rose into the night sky.
In nearby Kufa, unidentified gunmen shooting from an Iraqi Guard base killed two people and wounded five others who were taking part in what appeared to be a peaceful demonstration supporting al-Sadr, according to television footage and hospital officials.
Soon afterwards, three mortar rounds, apparently targeting a police checkpoint, hit a civilian area in Kufa, killing two civilians, including an eight-year-old boy, and wounding four others, witnesses and hospital officials said.
A militant group said yesterday it had kidnapped the brother-in-law of Iraqi defence minister Hazem Shaalan and demanded he end all military operations, according to a video obtained by Al-Jazeera television.
The militants, calling themselves the “Divine Wrath Brigades”, claimed to have kidnapped Maj Gen Salah Hassan Lami, Shaalan’s brother-in-law and the director of military affairs at the defence ministry, according to Al-Jazeera. A second man was also kidnapped, although his identity was unclear. It was not immediately possible to verify the video.
The violence over the past three weeks here has killed scores of civilians, destroyed shops and homes in Najaf’s Old City and caused damage to the revered Imam Ali shrine, where al-Sadr’s followers have taken refuge.
Al-Sistani, 75, the nation’s most respected Shiite cleric, left for London on August 6, one day after the clashes erupted. He underwent an angioplasty to unblock a coronary artery on August 13 and was recuperating, when his office suddenly announced yesterday he was returning to the country “to stop the bloodshed”.
Al-Sistani crossed into southern Iraq from Kuwait in a caravan of sport utility vehicles accompanied by Iraqi police and national guardsmen. The convoy stopped in the southern city of Basra, where the cleric planned to spend the night before heading to Najaf today.
Al-Sistani met a delegation of government ministers and mediators and told them military operations in Najaf must end and the government must not raid the Imam Ali shrine, according to an Associated Press reporter inside the meeting.
“I hope that peace prevails in Iraq. I hope that peace prevails in Najaf,” he said.
Last night, al-Sistani proposed a new peace initiative, calling for Najaf and Kufa to be declared weapons-free cities, for all foreign forces to withdraw from Najaf and leave security to the police and for the Iraqi government to compensate those harmed by the fighting, according to al-Khafaf.
Iraqi police sealed off Najaf’s Old City, preventing cars from entering, and the police chief, Maj Gen Ghalib al-Jazaari, said al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia was on its last legs.
“The Mahdi Army is finished,” he said. “Its hours are numbered.”
Witnesses in the Old City said the militants were still fighting in the streets, although the relentless American attacks appeared to be taking their toll.
Police also arrested several al-Sadr aides with valuables from the shrine in their possession, al-Jazaari said. One of al-Sadr’s top lieutenants, Sheikh Ali Smeisim, was said to be among those arrested.
