Posted on 08/26/2004 5:23:26 AM PDT by TexKat
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric arrived in Najaf Thursday to try to end a bloody three-week uprising as tensions rose sharply following attacks in a nearby town that killed 45 people and wounded 170.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani drove into the battered holy city of Najaf in a huge convoy, guarded by dozens of police pickups with their sirens wailing. Scores of police brandished AK-47 rifles as they drove past thousands lining the streets.
The violence in nearby Kufa came as Sistani's efforts to try to persuade fighters loyal to rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to leave Najaf's holiest shrine appeared to be gaining momentum. Sistani would soon unveil a peace plan, his aides said.
Tens of thousands of Iraqis in cars and on foot, many appearing to respond to Sistani's call to rescue the holy city, were converging on Najaf from several regions, witnesses said.
A mortar attack on Kufa's main mosque killed at least 25 Sadr supporters as hundreds of his men gathered inside, officials said. Shi'ite marchers were fired on in Kufa around the same time and 20 were killed, a Reuters photographer said.
The photographer said he had seen 20 bodies under blankets. It was unclear who opened fire or who launched the mortar.
Mohammed Abed al-Kadhem, a doctor at a hospital in the area, said 25 dead and 100 wounded had been brought in from the mosque attack, and at least 10 dead and 70 wounded from the shooting. Other victims were taken to another hospital in the area.
Television pictures showed dozens of wounded men lying in pools of blood around the mosque.
TEST FOR ALLAWI
Both the moderate Sistani and the radical Sadr have called on their supporters to converge on Najaf, where Mehdi Army militiamen loyal to Sadr are holed up in the Imam Ali mosque.
Hundreds have been killed in the past three weeks in fighting between the militia and U.S. and Iraqi government forces. The clashes have driven oil prices to record highs and undermined interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
An aide with Sistani on the journey from the southern city of Basra said the 73-year-old Iranian-born cleric would unveil a plan to resolve the Najaf crisis. Sistani arrived back from London Wednesday after heart treatment.
"On his arrival, a (peace) initiative will be launched," aide Hamed al-Khafaf told Reuters from Sistani's convoy.
Allawi said he had ordered his forces to observe a 24-hour cease-fire in Najaf from 3 p.m. (1100 GMT) to help the talks.
In a statement, he said representatives of the rebel cleric Sadr -- who has appeared to be ready to accept peace proposals in the past only to back away -- had indicated they would accept the plan from Sistani.
Allawi said Mehdi fighters would be offered an amnesty if they gave up their weapons and left the Imam Ali shrine, and Sadr would also be given safe passage if he ended the uprising.
Military operations would resume 24 hours later if no agreement was reached, Najaf's governor said.
Sistani's peace plan will include getting the Mehdi militia out of the Imam Ali mosque and calling on U.S. marines encircling the shrine to leave, aides said.
OVERNIGHT CLASHES
Overnight, U.S. warplanes unleashed a fierce attack on rebel targets in Najaf. The strikes came just after U.S. artillery fire rattled the city which has a peacetime population of 500,000, about 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad.
Sistani left Najaf for medical treatment in London just as the Najaf uprising began three weeks ago. Dressed in a black robe and turban, with a flowing white beard and dark rings around his eyes, he made a dramatic return to Iraq Wednesday.
His followers say the cleric's intervention could break the deadlock in Najaf and ensure a peaceful resolution.
Sistani played a role in ending a similar uprising from the Mehdi militia in April and May.
Sadr 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. Aged only about 30, Sadr has proven a stubborn foe of Iraq's U.S.-backed government.
U.S. firepower has failed to get his rebels out of the mosque as have threats and peace offerings from Allawi.
Supporters of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani (picture), the highest Shiite Muslim authority, gather outside the house where he is staying in the southern city of Basra, after he returned to Iraq. At least 27 people were killed and dozens wounded in separate incidents in the Iraqi town of Kufa as Iraq's top Shiite cleric headed for nearby Najaf, hoping to end weeks of fighting in the holy city with the help of a 24-hour truce.(AFP/Sabah Arar)
Protestors hold up pictures of Iraqi Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani during a demonstration in Kufa. Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani arrived in Najaf on a mission to bring peace to the conflict-ridden holy city, an AFP correspondent saw.(AFP/Ahmad Al-Rubaye)
Iraqi security forces escort the convoy of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shi'ite cleric, as it drives out of the southern city of Basra August 26, 2004. Sistani headed for Najaf early on Thursday to try to get rebels inside a holy shrine to leave and to bring an end to three weeks of bloody fighting that has killed hundreds. The cleric urged his supporters converging on Najaf not to enter the battered holy city until he arrived, a senior aide said. (Atef Hassan/Reuters)
Protestors hold up a picture of Iraqi Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani during a demonstration by supporters of Sistani and radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr from Kufa to its twin city Najaf 26 August 2004. Dozens of people were killed and wounded when Iraqi national guards shot at the demonstrators as they arrived at the guard's base at the entrance of Najaf. In a separate incident earlier, at least 25 people were killed and more than 100 wounded when two mortar bombs fell on Kufa's main mosque compound, controlled by Sadr's militiamen. AFP PHOTO/Ahmad AL-RUBAYE(AFP/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE)
Iraqis Shiites hit themselves on the chest as others hoist pictures of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr while chanting slogans in favour of Shiite religious leaders after a mortar barrage hit the main mosque in the Iraqi city of Kufa, Iraq Thursday Aug. 26, 2004. The attack killed 27 people and wounded 63 others as they prepared to march on the violence-wracked city of Najaf. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
EDS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENTS -- Bodies of victims killed during a mortar attack on the main Kufa mosque lie on the ground next to a freezer at the hospital in Kufa, Iraq Thursday Aug. 26, 2004. A mortar barrage on crowds gathered at Kufa mosque killed 27 people and wounded 63 others as they prepared to march on the violence-wracked city of Najaf. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
BAGHDAD (AFP) - A 24-hour ceasefire in Najaf will start when Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani arrives in the besieged city, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said.
"I have ordered all military operations to stop for 24 hours in the holy Najaf, starting from 3:00 pm today (1100 GMT) in accordance with the arrival of his holiness," said a statement referring to the ayatollah.
A spokesman from the prime minister's office confirmed that the ceasefire would begin when Sistani arrives in Najaf, be it before or after 3:00 pm.
And what will prevent Sadr & his killers from regrouping & doing the same thing again?
Didn't we take this same wooden nickel last time?
We're blowing again.
Where are these thousands of crazed supporters of Sistani going to go when they get into Najaf? To the mosque?
Then they will be encircling our forces, who will be between them and Sadr's forces--the second ring of three concentric rings.
This is a recipe for disaster. The State Dept. strikes again.
this guy sistani's going to have to go as well. he's no friend of democracy.
Huh? Sistani is going to retake the mosque for the moderates. He's being excorted by government officials. Sadr will be marginalized, if not run out of Iraq totally. This makes TexKat depressed.
An asphalt bridge is seen melting as flames and a large plume of smoke rise after an attack on an oil pipeline in al-Barjisiya, 30 km (18 miles) southwest of Basra, Iraq Thursday Aug. 26, 2004. Oil official says saboteurs attacked multiple pipelines in southern Iraq. (AP Photo/Nabil al Jurani)
Foreign and Iraqi oil workers look at a flames and a large plume of smoke rising after an attack on an oil pipeline in al-Barjisiya, 30 km (18 miles) southwest of Basra, Iraq Thursday Aug. 26, 2004. Oil official says saboteurs attacked multiple pipelines in southern Iraq. (AP Photo/Nabil al Jurani)
Iraqi firefighters arrive at the scene of eight burning pipelines, 40 km south of Basra, southern Iraq August 26, 2004. Saboteurs on Thursday attacked eight pipelines linking a main southern oil field in Iraq to a pumping station near the city of Basra, an oil official said. REUTERS/Atef Hassan
Here's your moderate:
All Things Najis (Unclean) 1. Urine; 2. Faeces 3. Semen 4. Dead body 5. Blood 6. Dog 7. Pig 8. Kafir* 9. Alcoholic liquors 10. The sweat of an animal who persistently eats najasat.
*Kafir (the rest of us)--
107. An infidel i.e. a person who does not believe in Allah and His Oneness, is najis. Similarly, Ghulat who believe in any of the holy twelve Imams as God, or that they are incarnations of God, and Khawarij and Nawasib who express enmity towards th e holy Imams, are also najis. And similar is the case of those who deny Prophethood, or any of the necessary laws of Islam, like, namaz and fasting, which are believed by the Muslims as a part of Islam, and which they also know as such. As regards the people of the Book (i.e. the Jews and the Christians) who do not accept the Prophethood of Prophet Muhammad bin Abdullah (Peace be upon him and his progeny), they are commonly considered najis, but it is not improbable that they are Pak. However, it is better to avoid them.
108. The entire body of a Kafir, including his hair and nails, and all liquid substances of his body, are najis.
109. If the parents, paternal grandmother and paternal grandfather of a minor child are all kafir, that child is najis, except when he is intelligent enough, and professes Islam. When, even one person from his parents or grandparents is a Muslim, the child is Pak (The details will be explained in rule 217).
110. A person about whom it is not known whether he is a Muslim or not, and if no signs exist to establish him as a Muslim, he will be considered Pak. But he will not have the privileges of a Muslim, like, he cannot marry a Muslim woman, nor can he be buried in a Muslim cemetery.
111. Any person who abuses any of the twelve holy Imams on account of enmity, is najis.
Grand Ayatullah Sayyid Ali Husayni Sistani
(Hey, Let's be friends!)
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - At least 10 supporters of Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric were shot dead in Najaf Thursday when gunmen opened fire at police who were trying to control the crowd, prompting the police to return fire, witnesses said.
Hospital officials said 10 bodies had been brought to Najaf's hospital after the shooting involving followers of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Ambulance workers said it was too dangerous to return to the scene because of sniper fire.
This guy Sistani has been playing good cop while setting up the revolutionary trap. He's been buying time. Al Sadr was probably commanded to open this front as a test from Tehran to see if the USA would go hard core on the Mosque and the uprising. Sistani, Al Sadr, the Ayatollahs in Iran = all on the same side. WAKE UP. As Admiral Ackbar would say. IT'S A TRAP.
I do have my personal reasons for following what is going on in Iraq due to my son already doing one tour there and about to do another.
I have been posting about the Iraq war since the beginning and have never stopped due to the continuation of it and if Elvis does not like it and consideres it anti-bush then tough. Its entitled to its opinion.
Fine. Believe what you want. It seems as if you have issues with all Muslims and are a raving bigot.
Sistani has said many times that he has no intentions of holding governmental power, no matter what a few of his followers desire or express. He gave Sadr one chance before. Screwed once, he is now is chasing Sadr and his motley gang of criminals out of the shrine.
Sadr's tiny little band is the one that is beholden to Iran, not Sistani. Hundreds of thousands of Iranian pilgrims have told Iraqis about the mess that exists in Iran, and warned them not to duplicate it in Iraq.
You have been posting about Iraq, all right. It has been 100% negative, and an effort to discourage other FRs about our noble effort there. I consider you an unbalanced disruptor, judging from the lopsided nature of your posts. And you and your mythical son can go to hell, for all I care.
KUFA, Iraq (AFP) - A total of 74 people were killed and 376 wounded in a mortar attack on Kufa's mosque, and shooting on Shiite demonstrators blamed on Iraq's national guard, the Iraqi health ministry said.
"The Najaf hospital received 39 bodies and 255 wounded and the one in Kufa 25 bodies and 60 wounded," a ministry official said.
The bodies of another eight people killed in the demonstration and 42 wounded people were transported to Diwaniya, about 50 kilometres (about 30 miles) east of Najaf.
Two other bodies and 19 wounded were taken to a hospital in Hilla, about 60 kilometres (more than 35 miles) north of Najaf.
"We cannot distinguish between those who died in the bombing of the Kufa mosque and those who were killed in the demonstration," he said.
How can they even do this in this heat? It is very hot in Iraq today.
In all seriousness, I think the whole Najaf thing has finally come to a head. While it's a shame that some innocents had to die, perhaps this will end this chapter.
I hope so.
I still want them to waste al-Sadr.
And may God bless you and all your love ones.
Elvis Van Dumbass.
Did you read his "pronouncement" on people not in his "club"? They are no better than dogs. I think your head needs a little enemal flushing so that you may think more clearly about things. How f-d up is it for you to call me a bigot for posting what this Ayatollah told his followers? Pretty F-d up.
Moran.
sistani running Al Sadr's people out? Hardly. You are indeed naive. Fortunately our leaders are not and probably have the steps to the ultimate resolution mapped out in fine detail. And it will not incluse Imans or Ayatollahs. Those bastards are going to exit stage left. I promise you that. No peace until they are out of the picture. NO PEACE.
Fine. Get your MOABs ready and line up the boxcars to the crematorium. You'll go down in history as one of its greatest madmen.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.