IRAQ: CLEAN UP BEGINS IN NAJAF AFTER 3 WEEKS OF HEAVY FIGHTING THAT LEFT HUNDREDS DEAD

Record ID: 376185

  • Title: IRAQ: CLEAN UP BEGINS IN NAJAF AFTER 3 WEEKS OF HEAVY FIGHTING THAT LEFT HUNDREDS DEAD
  • Date: 28th August 2004
  • Summary: (W4) NAJAF, IRAQ (AUGUST 28, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF IMAM ALI MOSQUE/ PEOPLE IN STREET (4 SHOTS) 0.14 2. DEBRIS AROUND MOSQUE 0.19 3. CU: DAMAGED MOSAIC 0.22 4. WIDE OF MOSQUE COMPLEX 0.27 5. PEOPLE IN STREET/ MOSQUE IN BACKGROUND 0.30 6. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE IN STREET 0.33 7. TRACTOR PULLING PEOPLE ON BAC
  • Embargoed: 12th September 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NAJAF, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVAEKKYA4HD4Y7IZOK32B96KMWFR
  • Story Text: Clean-up begins in Najaf.


    A big clean-up operation's been underway in the
    Iraqi city of Najaf after three weeks of fighting that left
    hundreds dead.

    Residents were out on the streets on Saturday (August
    28) clearing away rubble and debris.

    The area around the Imam Ali mosque, Iraq's holiest
    Shi'ite site, was calm.

    Shops and buildings around the mosque bore the scars of
    heavy fighting; some completely destroyed.

    And there was evidence of damage to the mosque itself.

    On Friday (August 27) the Mehdi Army militia of radical
    cleric Moqtada al-Sadr left the mosque after defying U.S.

    military firepower and the interim Iraqi government for
    three weeks.

    Iraq's most revered cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,
    made a dramatic return to Najaf on Thursday and
    persuaded Sadr to accept a peace deal to halt the fighting.

    On Saturday U.S. soldiers manned a checkpoint just
    outside the Wadi al-Salam cemetery.

    They searched lines of cars, many carrying wooden
    coffins of victims of the violence.

    But they were not to be seen close to the holy shrine.

    Part of the deal brokered by Sistani was that U.S. forces
    withdraw from the immediate area. Security was handed over
    to the Iraqi police.

    Rubble from damaged tombstones and brickwork littered
    the cemetery, the largest in the Middle East.

    Senior Shi'ite clerics, known s the Marjaiya, arrived
    for talks with Sistani at his house, and reaffirmed their
    opposition to armed resistance to U.S.-led forces in the
    country.

    Later a team of Iraqi ministers flew in to unveil plans
    for rebuilding the holy city.

    The five ministers drove through a shattered urban
    landscape of buildings pockmarked with bullet holes and
    streets littered with wreckage and ammunition to the Imam
    Ali shrine, where Shi'ite militants were holed up during
    their uprising.

    Minister of State Kasim Daoud, who led the delegation
    thanked Sistani for ending the crisis and pledged to
    rebuild Najaf.

    "Our delegation's visit will be followed by other
    visits by other delegations to ensure that the rebuilding
    process continues and that peace remains in Najaf," he told
    a news conference.


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