Iraq

Sistani calls on Iraqis to make Najaf peace march

NAJAF, Iraq - Iraq's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric made a surprise return to the country Wednesday after medical treatment in London and urged "all believers" to join him here to bring an end to three weeks of fighting between U.S. forces and a Shiite militia force loyal to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani entered southern Iraq from Kuwait in a convoy guarded by Iraqi police and settled in Basra for the night with plans to drive the 230 miles to Najaf today. Once he reaches this holy city, his aides said, he will lead a march to the shrine of Imam Ali, which has been taken over by Sadr's militiamen.

U.S. forces pushing toward the shrine from two directions breached a ring road and gained footholds in the core of the defenses of Sadr's Mahdi Army.

Despite Sistani's call for peace, heavy fighting persisted in Najaf's Old City, the center of many of the clashes between militants loyal to Sadr and a combined Iraqi-U.S. force. Late Wednesday, U.S. 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.

Although the militia appeared to be at its weakest point since the standoff began, witnesses said there still were scores of well-armed fighters hiding in the alleys that lead to the shrine.

Police also arrested several Sadr aides with valuables from the shrine in their possession, said Najaf's police chief, Maj. Gen. Ghalib al-Jazaari. One of Sadr's top lieutenants, Sheik Ali Smeisim, was among those arrested, the Associated Press reported, quoting police officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Last week during negotiations to end the siege, Sadr officials offered the keys of the shrine to Sistani's office, which refused them out of concern that the gold and other treasures of the shrine might have been looted during the rebels' occupation. The shrine contains millions of dollars in gold, and many of its relics are considered priceless Shiite antiquities.

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 Sadr, according to television footage and hospital officials.

Soon afterward, three mortar rounds, apparently targeting a police checkpoint, hit a civilian area in Kufa, killing two civilians, including an 8-year-old boy, and wounding four others, witnesses and hospital officials said.

A militant group said Wednesday that it had kidnapped the brother-in-law of Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan and demanded he end all military operations in Najaf, 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 Defense Ministry, according to Al-Jazeera. A second man was also kidnapped, though his identity was unclear. The authenticity of the videotape could not be immediately verified.

The violence over the past three weeks has killed scores of civilians, destroyed shops and homes in Najaf's Old City and caused slight damage to the revered Imam Ali shrine, where Sadr's followers have taken refuge.

Sistani's dramatic return posed a potentially significant new complication in the confrontation. Although Sistani has quietly disagreed with Sadr's militant tactics, it is not clear what he wants to accomplish through his march.

Sistani, 75, the nation's most respected Shiite cleric, left for London on Aug. 6, one day after the clashes erupted. He underwent an angioplasty to unblock a coronary artery Aug. 13 and was recuperating, when his office suddenly announced Wednesday morning that he was returning to the country "to stop the bloodshed."

Iraqi political leaders expressed concern that the march could be co-opted by Sadr's supporters and that an injection of thousands of noncombatants into the war-torn city could interfere with ongoing military operations and allow the militiamen to escape. But, they said, it also could reduce tensions by pressuring Sadr to relinquish control of the shrine to more senior Shiite leaders, perhaps leading some fighters to lay down their arms.

Mindful of Sistani's enormous capacity for mobilizing crowds, Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, flew to Basra late Wednesday to meet with the ayatollah, political sources said.

Sistani told a delegation of government ministers and mediators that 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.

Mohammed Musawi, a Sistani aide, said the purpose of the march was to save the holy city and the shrine. "Americans interfering in this will not help the situation at all," he told the BBC. "We always say that the Americans should be very far from the holy places. They should not involve themselves in this problem."

Late Wednesday, 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 here, said Sistani aide Hamed al-Khafaf.

A spokesman for Sadr said the Mahdi Army would observe a cease-fire along Sistani's route to Najaf. "We announce stopping all the operations and fighting in the south and all the provinces which Sistani will pass through, for his sake," Qais Khafaji, the Sadr spokesman in the southern city of Nasiriyah, said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television.

Ali Yassiri, a Sadr spokesman in Baghdad, also urged Shiite followers to head to Najaf, a move that could prove risky given the tensions over U.S. military operations so close to the shrine.

"This is a step to show the world that the Iraqis want to end the military operations and try to solve the problem in Najaf peacefully," he said. "We don't want people to go to Najaf to be human shields. We don't want to increase the sufferings of Iraqis."

Appeals issued from mosque loudspeakers across Iraq urging Iraqis to heed Sistani's call. In Baghdad's Shiite slum, Sadr City, many left for Najaf in cars and buses. Witnesses in other cities reported similar groups leaving.

Jazaari, the police chief, cautioned Iraqis not to go to Najaf because "they could be putting their lives in danger."

U.S. commanders planning a sharp escalation of the battle did not immediately react to the prospect of tens of thousands of Iraqis descending on a war zone.

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