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Sadr Men Hold Onto Mosque

Posted: Sunday August 22, 2004 8:06 AM EST

By Naseer Al-Nahr Arab News

BAGHDAD — Militants loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr kept their hold on Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf yesterday as they bickered over the terms of its transfer to religious authorities.

The crisis appeared on the verge of resolution on Friday, when insurgents decided to remove their weapons from the mosque, where they had been taking refuge, and turn it over to representatives of Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Husseini Al-Sistani.

But the transfer bogged down yesterday amid arguments over its implementation. Sadr aides said they tried to give the shrine’s keys to Sistani’s representatives, who refused to accept them.

“If the brothers in the office of… Sadr want to vacate the holy shrine compound and close the doors and hand over the keys, then the office of the religious authority in Najaf will take the keys for safekeeping until the crisis ends,” Hamed Khafaf, a Sistani aide, said from London, where the cleric is undergoing medical treatment. “We cannot receive the shrine compound unless they agree to this formula.”

Ali Sumeisim, Sadr’s chief lieutenant, said the militants would not leave until a delegation from Sistani’s office inspects the shrine to ensure its treasures are intact, so they could not be accused of taking anything.

Khafaf said the violence precludes such a delegation.

Sadr supporters later clashed with US troops. Explosions from mortar bombs and rocket propelled-grenades echoed through the alleyways of the old city wrecking a day of relative calm in a two-week Shiite uprising that has helped drive world oil prices to record highs.

Militiamen had earlier brandished weapons around the Imam Ali Mosque, dampening hopes of an early end to the siege. “Bring those Americans here to fight hand to hand,” one of Sadr’s followers said before the latest outbreak of fighting.

“They are cowards. They stay thousands of feet away in their airplanes. They are scared, they know we will slaughter them,” he said, biting his finger for emphasis.

Inside the mosque, a teenager hacked with a pick at a block of ice to help cool Sadr’s fighters, who yelled slogans vilifying Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who has called on them to lay down their weapons and leave.

“We are winning, we will win over Iyad Allawi and the traitors collaborating with the Americans,” they chanted.

Some held banners that said: “Where is the bullet that will grant me martyrdom?”

In nearby Kufa, where Sadr has in the past led prayers at the mosque, witnesses said US forces had also clashed with militiamen yesterday.

Violence continued across the country.

Insurgents bombed an oil pipeline in Berjisiya, 35 km southwest of the southern city of Basra, setting it ablaze, said Lt. Mohammed Al-Mousawi of the Iraqi National Guard.

The pipeline, which connects the Rumeila oilfields with export storage tanks in the Faw Peninsula, had been shut down for a week due to threats from insurgents, and the attack did not appear likely to effect exports.

Early yesterday, attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a US military vehicle in Baghdad, killing one US soldier and wounding two others, the military said. As of Friday, 949 US service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to the US Defense Department.

Also yesterday, a Polish soldier was killed and six more were injured when a car bomb exploded next to their military convoy about 11.50 a.m. outside the city of Hilla, about 95 kilometers south of Baghdad, Polish Maj. Krzysztof Plazuk said.

The parked car exploded as a 19-truck convoy under the protection of Polish troops was driving by, said Col. Artur Domanski, the spokesman for the multinational force under Polish command. Polish troops engaged in a gunbattle with the insurgents, killing some of them, he said. The death of Pfc. Krystian Andrzejczak, 24, brought to 10 the number of Polish soldiers killed in Iraq.

In other violence one Iraqi National Guard soldier was killed and two guardsmen and three civilians were wounded when a bomb exploded in the northern city of Mosul, said Mahmoud Saadallah, a National Guard official.

Assailants detonated a roadside bomb after a US convoy drove by in Baquba, 60 km northeast of Baghdad, killing two civilians and injuring four others, said Hussein Ali, a hospital official.

A roadside bomb exploded in Sabtiya, four km north of Baquba, after a US convoy passed, killing a sanitation worker cleaning the street and wounding another Iraqi, said hospital official Mudher Sabah.

In Ramadi, 115 km, west of Baghdad, gunmen shot dead Lt. Col. Saad Smayer, a senior police officer, as he left home for work, said provincial police chief Maj. Gen. Jaadan Mohammed Al-Alwan.

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