IRAQ: FIGHTING CONTINUES IN NAJAF FOLLOWING RETURN OF GRAND AYATOLLAH ALI AL-SISTANI

Record ID: 376163

  • Title: IRAQ: FIGHTING CONTINUES IN NAJAF FOLLOWING RETURN OF GRAND AYATOLLAH ALI AL-SISTANI
  • Date: 25th August 2004
  • Summary: (U3)BASRA, IRAQ (AUGUST 25, 2004)(REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 1. CONVOY OF GRAND AYATOLLAH ALI AL-SISTANI CROSSING INTO IRAQ FROM KUWAIT 0.47 2. VARIOUS OF PICK-UP TRUCKS CARRYING IRAQI GUARDSMEN PRECEDING SISTANI'S MOTORCADE 1.00 3. SLV POLICE IN PICK-UP TRUCKS FOLLOWING SISTANI'S MOTORCADE 1.27 (U3) NAJAF, IRAQ (AUGUST 25, 2004) (REUTERS
  • Embargoed: 9th September 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BASRA AND NAJAF, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVAFPEB5T1SXD1JQVPYRJADMP7R
  • Story Text: Fighting continues in Najaf's old city as local
    people react to Grand Ayatollah Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's
    sudden return to Iraq.




    Iraq's most influential Shi'ite cleric, Grand
    Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani made a sudden return to Iraq on
    Wednesday (August 25) and urged Iraqis to march on the
    "burning city" of Najaf, where fighting is creeping ever
    closer to its holiest shrine.

    Aides said Sistani arrived in the southern city of
    Basra from Kuwait, having undergone heart treatment in
    London for three weeks. On Thursday he would head to Najaf,
    his adopted home.

    The news of Sistani's return came as U.S. and Iraqi
    forces tightened their grip around Mehdi Army militants
    loyal to Moqtada al Sadr, a radical cleric, who have holed
    up in Najaf's Imam Ali mosque, advancing to within 300
    metres (yards) of the rebel-held shrine.

    Al-Sadr is a young cleric who has challenged the
    collegiate leadership of the Najaf clergy led by the elder
    Sistani.

    Aide Hamed al-Khafaf said Sistani wanted to save the
    city.

    "Najaf is burning. Ayatollah al-Sistani is on his way
    back and calls on Iraqis from all provinces to join him in
    the holy city," Khafaf said by telephone from Beirut.

    The call to march appears to be an attempt by the
    Iranian-born cleric to reclaim some of the political ground
    captured during the uprising by Sadr, who has painted
    himself as the face of anti-U.S. resistance and icon to the
    poor masses.

    Sadr also called for his own followers to march on Najaf.

    Gunfire rocked the area and smoke rose around Najaf's
    old city on Wednesday as Iraqi troops advanced closer to
    the Imam Ali mosque.

    U.S. tanks fired shells and U.S. helicopters fired on
    militia targets. But a threatened assault on the shrine has
    not yet gone ahead.

    Iraqi Defence Minister Hazim al-Shalaan had warned the
    Mehdi fighters they would be wiped out if they did not
    leave the mosque by Tuesday evening. U.S. and Iraqi
    officials have said
    only Iraqi forces would storm the mosque.

    Some 500 Iraqi troops have been deployed to the area
    around the shrine.

    Any raid by U.S. troops on the shrine could trigger
    mass protests from the majority Shi'ite community.

    People in Najaf welomed Sistani's return to Iraq and
    expressed hope that he would be able to bring about a
    peaceful resolution to the conflict between U.S. forces and
    Iraq forces on the one hand and Medhi Army supporters in
    Najaf on the other hand.

    "The return of Sayyid Al Sistani makes all Iraqis
    happy. Iraqis love Sayyid Al Sistani, God willing, his
    return will end this situation," said Lieutenant Hayder
    Hussein, Commander of an Iraqi National Guard division.

    "The return of Sayyid Al Sistani is important in this
    period, to resolve the situation in a peaceful way," said
    Ala Abdul Hussein, a barber.




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