Friday, August 27, 2004
NAJAF, Iraq (AP) -- Thousands of pilgrims streamed into the Imam Ali Shrine today and filed out mixed with militants who had been holed up inside, leaving the holy site nearly empty after Iraq's top Shiite cleric brokered a peace deal to end three weeks of fighting in this holy city.
Hours earlier, firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr issued a statement broadcast over the shrine's loudspeakers, ordering his fighters to lay down their arms and leave Najaf and neighboring Kufa.
"To all my brothers in Mahdi army ... you should leave Kufa and Najaf without your weapons, along with the peaceful masses," his statement said.
Dozens of militants piled Kalashnikov rifles in front of al-Sadr's office. Thousands of al-Sadr's militiamen were still believed to be armed in the city, however.
By this afternoon, the shrine, where the fighting had been centered, appeared empty, clear of the visitors and the militants. U.S. forces, however, still maintained their positions around the holy site and jet fighters flew overhead.
Al-Sadr accepted the peace proposal in a face-to-face meeting Thursday night with the 75-year-old Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani. Iraq's interim government also agreed to the deal and U.S. forces ordered their troops to cease fire.
The scene
Thousands of people had marched through Najaf to visit the shrine, one of Shia Islam's holiest. Many kissed its doors as they entered, chanting "Thanks to God!"
Militants were seen walking out, chanting "Muqtada, Muqtada."
Police later blocked roads leading to the area, preventing people from entering and searching throngs of people as they streamed out of the shrine. Most of those leaving carried no weapons, but police detained four militants carrying grenades.
In one narrow alley lacking police checkpoints, some militiamen could be seen pushing carts full of machine-guns and rocket launchers.
Earlier, U.S. soldiers looked on as people passed by in the streets leading to the shrine compound. Army 1st Lt. Chris Kent said the peace agreement "appears to be a final resolution. That's what it looks like right now."
The U.S. military said it was continuing to monitor the situation and maintain "a supportive posture," according to a statement.
Najaf's deputy police chief, Brig. Imad al-Da'ami, said Iraqi forces planned to head into the Old City later today to ensure it was rid of militants and would be stationed around the shrine but would not enter it.
He said they would begin the operation only after militants officially handed over the shrine to al-Sistani's representatives.
Scores of Iraqi police and hundreds of U.S. soldiers gathered at a police station near the Revolution of 1920 Square, apparently preparing to take part in that operation.
Police briefly exchanged fire with militants in one part of town, however, and some U.S. troops were still receiving occasional sniper-fire. Nevertheless, the fierce clashes of previous days had ended and most parts of the city were calm.
Boost in prestige
Al-Sistani's highly publicized, 11th-hour peace mission would almost certainly boost his already high prestige in Iraq and cloak him in a statesman's mantle, showing that only he could force an accord between two sides that loathe each other.
The influential cleric returned to Iraq after heart treatment in London to intervene for the first time in the bloody conflict, drawing thousands of followers who marched on Najaf and massed on its outskirts.
The Health Ministry said 110 people were killed and 501 were wounded in Najaf and Kufa on Thursday. Twenty-seven of the dead were killed when mortars slammed into Kufa's main mosque, where thousands had gathered to march into Najaf in support of al-Sistani's mission.
Car bomb
In the northern city of Mosul, a car bomb exploded as a U.S. military convoy moved through a traffic circle on the western edge of the city, wounding 10 Iraqi civilians and one U.S. soldier, said Army Capt. Angela Bowman.
Meanwhile, an Arab-language television station said today that it received a video showing the killing of kidnapped Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni, whom militants had threatened to execute if Italy did not withdraw troops from Iraq. Al-Jazeera said the video was too graphic to broadcast but appeared to show Baldoni being slain.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led war to topple Saddam Hussein's regime, condemned the reported slaying and repeated his statement of Tuesday that Italy's 3,000 soldiers would not abandon the U.S.-led coalition and Iraq's government.
The acceptance by al-Sadr -- whose militia has been battling U.S. and Iraqi forces since Aug. 5 -- didn't necessarily mean an end to the crisis. He has agreed to peace proposals before, and they have quickly fallen apart.
But State Minister Qassim Dawoud, announcing the government's acceptance, was optimistic. "Brothers, we have entered the door to peace," he said. He added that the government would not try to arrest al-Sadr, who is sought in the slaying of a rival cleric last year.
In other developments today:
UA gunbattle between U.S. forces and militants erupted in central Baghdad, witnesses said. U.S. troops sealed off roads around Haifa Street, where the firefights were taking place. Helicopter gunships circled overhead, according to an Associated Press photographer on the scene.
UA U.S. soldier was killed in a vehicle accident and a second seriously injured near the volatile city of Fallujah, the military said.