Huge Crowds at Najaf Shrine, Some Rebels Hand in Arms

By Michael Georgy

NAJAF, Iraq - Tens of thousands of chanting Iraqi Shi’ites converged on a holy shrine in Najaf on Friday, where some rebels began handing in weapons after a peace deal was reached overnight to end a three-week uprising.

Many pilgrims, supporters of revered cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who brokered the peace agreement, were overcome with emotion outside the rebel-held Imam Ali mosque. Some kissed the outer wall and wept before the militants allowed them in.

At least one weapons collection point had been set up near Iraq’s holiest Shi’ite shrine following an order from rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr for his Mehdi Army militia to disarm.

But it was not immediately clear if Sadr was instructing his militia to leave the mosque for good in accordance with the peace deal. Other militia members were still brandishing AK-47 assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades.

Late on Thursday, Sistani persuaded Sadr to accept a deal ending the rebellion in Najaf, after returning to the holy city amid bloody clashes that killed at least 74 people.

Iraq’s government said it had also agreed to the deal, under which Sadr’s militia will leave the shrine by 10 a.m. (0200 EDT) on Friday and U.S. forces will pull out of the city.

Dozens of Mehdi fighters had taken off their black military fatigues and changed into civilian clothing.

Teenage fighters spilled over the alleyways leading to the gold-domed mosque. Some smiled and said to the visitors as they flowed in: "Welcome pilgrims to the shrine."

But after bitter fighting with U.S. marines that killed hundreds and in the wake of ferocious American bombardments, some Mehdi militants still wanted to vent their fury.

"We will support whatever Ayatollah Sistani and Sayyed Moqtada have agreed. But we will still slit the throats of the Americans," said one militiaman, Hussein Taama.

The Najaf uprising has been a stark reminder to the interim government and the United States, which led the war to depose Saddam Hussein last year, of the huge hurdles ahead in Iraq.

President Bush acknowledged for the first time on Thursday he had miscalculated post-war conditions in Iraq, the New York Times reported. The paper quoted Bush as saying during a 30-minute interview that he made "a miscalculation of what the conditions would be" in post-war Iraq.

Elsewhere, Al Jazeera reported late on Thursday that Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni, taken hostage in an ambush near Najaf, was killed by his captors.

DESTRUCTION

Sistani’s supporters walked past dozens of pockmarked and destroyed buildings to reach the mosque just after dawn. Spent ammunition littered the city center, which only a day earlier had been infested with snipers. A few men carted off a body.

"We pray today that Najaf will recover. The military operations have only brought destruction," said Kassem Hameed, a 52-year-old oil worker from the southern city of Basra who came to support Sistani, Iraq’s most influential cleric.

Sistani aide Hamed al-Khafaf said Sadr had agreed to all points of the peace plan to end fighting that has driven oil prices to record highs and undermined interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s authority.

Najaf is to be declared a weapons-free zone, and the government is to compensate victims of the fighting.

Iraq’s government said Sadr would not face arrest. Earlier this year an Iraqi arrest warrant was issued for Sadr in connection with the murder of a rival cleric in Najaf last year.

But the peace deal came amid a day of bloodshed.

At least 15 Sistani supporters were shot dead in Najaf and 65 wounded when gunmen opened fire at police who were trying to control a crowd, prompting police to shoot back.

In nearby Kufa, a mortar attack on a mosque killed at least 25 Sadr supporters, officials said. Shi’ite marchers were fired on in Kufa around the same time and several were killed.

The Health Ministry said at least 74 people were killed in Thursday’s attacks in Najaf and Kufa and hundreds wounded.

Sistani arrived back on Wednesday from three weeks in London for heart treatment. The uprising erupted just as he left his adopted home in Najaf, Iraq’s center of Shi’ite learning.

Allawi said the Mehdi Army fighters would be offered an amnesty if they gave up their weapons and left the shrine.

Sistani’s followers said the cleric’s intervention would be crucial in getting the deal to last and ensuring a peaceful resolution after U.S. firepower failed to drive rebels from the mosque. The elderly cleric helped end an earlier uprising by Sadr’s supporters in April and May.

Sadr, aged only about 30, has challenged the collegiate leadership of the Najaf clergy headed by Sistani and styled himself as the face of anti-U.S. Shi’ite resistance. (Reuters)

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