Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani resumed control over the Imam Ali shrine Friday as a final handful of militiamen loyal to a rebel Shiite cleric exited the compound after a deadly three-week standoff with U.S.-led and Iraqi forces.
A group of clerics representing al-Sistani — the top Shiite religious authority in Iraq — reclaimed the keys to the shrine from the forces of young cleric Moqtada Sadr. Meanwhile, Iraqi police and soldiers took up positions around the complex as U.S. troops that were still as close as 50 yards away pulled back Friday afternoon.
The actions marked a peaceful end to the lengthy confrontation, which presented a challenge to Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and put the gold-domed mosque, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam, at risk.
Sadr agreed early Friday to order his armed followers to leave the mosque and put down their weapons as part of an agreement brokered by al-Sistani to end weeks of combat in Najaf’s normally tranquil Old City district. Tens of thousands of worshipers poured through the mosque complex for prayers Friday morning as the sudden deal came together. Al-Sistani had summoned the faithful from around Iraq to come to Najaf to march in support of peace.
Despite the exit of fighters from the shrine, a Sadr spokesman said the standoff’s ending amounted to a victory because Sadr had agreed to remove his men under a religious order from al-Sistani, not as a result of pressure from the Americans and the interim Iraqi government.
The agreement, accepted by the Allawi government, also appears to allow Sadr’s militia to remain armed and for the cleric to remain free, despite earlier U.S. and Iraqi vows to arrest him on suspicion of being involved in the slaying of a rival cleric last year.
U.S. welcomes deal
The Bush administration Friday praised the agreement. Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking on Fox News Radio, welcomed what he called a “resolution that did not require troops to go into that mosque.”
At the same time, Pentagon officials acknowledged that with Sadr’s militia remaining at least partly armed and intact, the outcome was far from ideal from a U.S. standpoint. Throughout the standoff, U.S. military officers in Iraq had said the only acceptable outcome was a full defeat of Sadr’s forces and the discrediting of the cleric himself.
In a document released by al-Sistani’s office detailing the terms, the elder cleric, who returned to Najaf on Thursday after three weeks of medical treatment in Britain for a heart condition, demanded the departure of Sadr’s fighters and “foreign forces” from Najaf and neighboring Kufa, a Sadr stronghold.
Al-Sistani said Iraqi police should be solely in charge of security in the two cities and he urged the Iraqi government to compensate residents whose properties were damaged during the fighting, which included mortar strikes by Sadr’s men and aerial bombing and tank fire by U.S. forces.
Sadr signed the list of demands, saying he was “ready to follow and execute them.”
Repercussions unknown
During three weeks of fighting, Sadr’s forces took refuge in the sacred mosque compound. U.S. and Iraqi forces moved steadily closer. But they never made a final push, apparently because of concerns about the repercussions if the holy site were damaged.
Getting Sadr’s militia out of the shrine offers some breathing room for the 2-month-old Allawi government and seems certain to enhance the standing of the 73-year-old al-Sistani.
Left to be seen, however, is whether the standoff will be the last confrontation between the rebel cleric’s forces and the government and what role, if any, Sadr will play in Iraqi electoral politics.
By late afternoon Friday, two U.S. tanks remained stationed along the main avenue into the Old City. But quickly taking the place of the American troops was a growing contingent of Iraqi police who poured into the district in SUVs and pickup trucks, the barrels of their automatic weapons poking out like quills.
Bodies discovered
Iraqi police said they had discovered at least 10 bodies in a religious court used by Sadr’s group. Police said the discovery was evidence of summary executions by Sadr’s forces, which used the court for punishing people outside Iraq’s legal system.
Police summoned reporters to visit the building, located in an alley a block from the mosque.
Spokesmen for the Sadr group said the bodies were actually those of fighters and supporters who had been killed during the fighting but had not yet been buried. Some journalists were kept from entering, but the stench of decaying bodies reached the alley outside the building.
One reporter who went inside said he counted as many as 16 bodies. An Associated Press reporter saw the body of an elderly woman and said some of the bodies had gaping wounds that appeared to have been caused by shrapnel.
In the quiet that prevailed Friday afternoon, one of the pro-Sadr fighters, 26-year-old Ali Adai, said it would be difficult to go back to his job driving a taxi. His car, a Volvo, was destroyed in the fighting, along with the family’s home.
Rebuilding begins
Asked what he would do now, Adai, his left elbow and head bandaged from what he said were shrapnel wounds, gestured toward shattered buildings nearby and said construction work would soon be available.
“The Americans destroy, we build,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the volatile city of Fallujah, a U.S. air strike killed two people and wounded 11 others, including a 6-year-old girl, said Dr. Abdel Rahman Ahmad, of Fallujah General Hospital. U.S. warplanes also bombed the city’s industrial zone, wounding two factory guards, hospital officials told AP.
The military said it was targeting an anti-aircraft gun mounted on the back of a truck. Militants “attempted to fire on one of our aviation assets and we responded with missile fire,” said Lt. Col. Thomas Johnson, a spokesman for the U.S. Marines.
Witnesses said one airplane dropped at least two bombs in the eastern neighborhood of al-Askari, damaging at least 15 houses and destroying several cars.
