Najaf: Cracks in handover plan

2004-08-21 16:16

Najaf - Moqtada Sadr's militiamen were still holding their Najaf mosque stronghold on Saturday as cracks emerged in a plan to hand over control of the shrine to the Shiite religious leadership.

Supporters of the fiery radical leader remained camped out in the Imam Ali mausoleum, one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, early on Saturday, as armed fighters prowled the streets of the Old City.

Despite relative calm and a heavily reduced military presence, US tanks were still parked within shooting distance of the shrine. Sporadic gunshots and mortar fire echoed throughout the city.

The force of morning shelling from the cemetery hurled shrapnel into the courtyard of the shrine without causing damage, an AFP correspondent said.

Four mortars crashed into the office of Grand Ayatollah Bashir al-Najafi, the second most senior cleric in Najaf, Friday evening, but no one was killed or wounded, said a statement from his office.

But 17 days after the fighting broke out, it remained unclear when or if the militia would leave, as an agreement with top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani appeared to fray under the cold light of day.

"The keys have not yet been delivered to Sistani's office, which has set conditions for accepting them," Sadr aide Ali Smeisim told AFP, after a spokesperson for the ayatollah earlier said they had already been handed over.

Smeisim said Sistani's office was insisting that the compound be vacated, all its doors locked and the keys delivered in a stamped envelope.

"A delegation from the ayatollah's office will come and draw up an inventory of all the items of value in the mausoleum to ensure that nothing has been damaged before the keys are returned," he said.

The aide refused to say when such a visit might take place. A doctor at the shrine's clinic, who gave his name only as Qusay, said it would take at least three days to move all their medicines to new premises.

Blood on windows

Smeisim said the militia had been given the keys by a representative of the the Shiite religious leadership five months ago, raising questions about the relationship between them, which was understood to be strained.

In Najaf's twin city of Kufa, one person was killed and 12 wounded, including three children, during overnight clashes between US forces and the Mehdi Army, medics said.

Militiamen charged that US troops had attempted to to storm the Maitham al-Tamar mosque, resulting in three hours of clashes.

An AFP correspondent saw a huge hole in the outer wall of the mosque compound. Part of a court building opposite was blackened and gutted by fire, with blood smeared on the windows.

As tensions eased in Najaf, life also began to return to normal in the militia's Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City, where residents awoke to a much reduced US military presence after days of heavy fighting.

An AFP photographer saw no Mehdi Army fighters in the impoverished Shiite neighbourhood, as stores reopened and residents again dared to venture outdoors.

"We woke up this morning to find no Americans in the city. Perhaps some kind of agreement was reached between the clerics and Americans, because the militia aren't here either," said shopkeeper Sajjad Abdullah, 49.

A US military spokesperson confirmed that the troop presence had been scaled down as of Friday, but was unable to confirm whether any deal had been struck.

- AFP