Moqtada Sadr's month-long uprising took a double battering Friday
as Najaf's Shiite religious establishment told the rebel cleric's
militiamen to go home and US troops killed eight of them.
An unequivocal denunciation of Sadr's Mehdi Army by respected cleric Sheikh Sadreddin Kubbanji was the clearest indication yet that time was running out on Sadr's insurrection and the US Army picked off his foot soldiers.
US political and military pressure bore fruit as Kubbanji called in Najaf for the militia to leave the holy city, 130 kilometres south of Baghdad.
"Listen to the advice of the learned ones. You are our beloved youth and we care about you, but go back to your home where you came from and fight the occupation and the Baathists there," Kubbanji told thousands of worshippers at the Imam Ali Mausoleum, one of the most revered shrines in Shiite Islam.
"The Najafis will be responsible for protecting Najaf." Minutes afterwards, gun-toting militiamen gathered outside the shrine and the cleric was whisked off by the Badr Organisation, the armed wing of the Shiite political partym the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
Kubbanji's sermon came after 150 Shiite religious and tribal leaders met Tuesday in Najaf and called on Sadr to end his rebellion.
Locals have accused the Mehdi Army of looting shops and carrying out vigilante-style justice in Najaf since his forces rebelled against the Americans the first week of April.
The insurrection has choked all economic life in the city and a rival militia has reportedly sprouted up, carrying out hit-and-run attacks on Sadr's men.
Tensions have long festered between Sadr and the city's senior clerics, but Kubbanji, who has strong ties with the Shiites' most influential religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, had been reluctant to lash out at Sadr.
But the city has grown tired after enduring the US military's siege of the city for the past month, and Sadr's rebellion has deflated considerably. His men have lost control of cities they seized in April including Karbala, Diwaniya, Nasiriyah and Kut.
In the past week, the US military has intensified its raids to capture and kill Sadr's men across the south.
Eight militiamen were killed and 14 others wounded during fighting with US troops Friday afternoon in the shrine city of Karbala, a doctor said there.
Medics carried the bodies of men, clothed in the Mehdi Army's black uniform, and ambulances pulled up with more casualties at the city's general hospital.
US forces killed 41 of Sadr's supporters around Kufa on Thursday and seized the governor's building in Najaf, about a kilometre from the Imam Ali Mausoleum.
That attack coincided with a political assault on Sadr, with US overseer Paul Bremer naming a new governor for Najaf.
Yet Sadr carried on defiantly Friday afternoon, circumventing US checkpoints on foot with armed followers to deliver a fire-and-brimstone sermon in his bastion of Kufa.
Sadr, who promised his followers Tuesday he would lead them to martyrdom, demanded that US President George W. Bush stand trial in Iraq over the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib detention centre.
The Americans want Sadr, whose father was a grand ayatollah assassinated on the orders of Saddam Hussein in 1999, to stand trial in an Iraqi court for the murder of a rival cleric last April.
A top coalition official said Thursday the Americans were holding talks with sheikhs and tribal leaders as part of their bid to isolate Sadr and promised "several hundred-million" dollars to spend in and around the city to try to wrest control of the area from the cleric's armed followers.
The US-led coalition also plans to strengthen the security forces in Najaf, and nearby Karbala, to drive out Sadr's men. - Sapa-AFP
An unequivocal denunciation of Sadr's Mehdi Army by respected cleric Sheikh Sadreddin Kubbanji was the clearest indication yet that time was running out on Sadr's insurrection and the US Army picked off his foot soldiers.
US political and military pressure bore fruit as Kubbanji called in Najaf for the militia to leave the holy city, 130 kilometres south of Baghdad.
"Listen to the advice of the learned ones. You are our beloved youth and we care about you, but go back to your home where you came from and fight the occupation and the Baathists there," Kubbanji told thousands of worshippers at the Imam Ali Mausoleum, one of the most revered shrines in Shiite Islam.
"The Najafis will be responsible for protecting Najaf." Minutes afterwards, gun-toting militiamen gathered outside the shrine and the cleric was whisked off by the Badr Organisation, the armed wing of the Shiite political partym the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
Kubbanji's sermon came after 150 Shiite religious and tribal leaders met Tuesday in Najaf and called on Sadr to end his rebellion.
Locals have accused the Mehdi Army of looting shops and carrying out vigilante-style justice in Najaf since his forces rebelled against the Americans the first week of April.
The insurrection has choked all economic life in the city and a rival militia has reportedly sprouted up, carrying out hit-and-run attacks on Sadr's men.
Tensions have long festered between Sadr and the city's senior clerics, but Kubbanji, who has strong ties with the Shiites' most influential religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, had been reluctant to lash out at Sadr.
But the city has grown tired after enduring the US military's siege of the city for the past month, and Sadr's rebellion has deflated considerably. His men have lost control of cities they seized in April including Karbala, Diwaniya, Nasiriyah and Kut.
In the past week, the US military has intensified its raids to capture and kill Sadr's men across the south.
Eight militiamen were killed and 14 others wounded during fighting with US troops Friday afternoon in the shrine city of Karbala, a doctor said there.
Medics carried the bodies of men, clothed in the Mehdi Army's black uniform, and ambulances pulled up with more casualties at the city's general hospital.
US forces killed 41 of Sadr's supporters around Kufa on Thursday and seized the governor's building in Najaf, about a kilometre from the Imam Ali Mausoleum.
That attack coincided with a political assault on Sadr, with US overseer Paul Bremer naming a new governor for Najaf.
Yet Sadr carried on defiantly Friday afternoon, circumventing US checkpoints on foot with armed followers to deliver a fire-and-brimstone sermon in his bastion of Kufa.
Sadr, who promised his followers Tuesday he would lead them to martyrdom, demanded that US President George W. Bush stand trial in Iraq over the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib detention centre.
The Americans want Sadr, whose father was a grand ayatollah assassinated on the orders of Saddam Hussein in 1999, to stand trial in an Iraqi court for the murder of a rival cleric last April.
A top coalition official said Thursday the Americans were holding talks with sheikhs and tribal leaders as part of their bid to isolate Sadr and promised "several hundred-million" dollars to spend in and around the city to try to wrest control of the area from the cleric's armed followers.
The US-led coalition also plans to strengthen the security forces in Najaf, and nearby Karbala, to drive out Sadr's men. - Sapa-AFP
Advertisement
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE SAVE THIS ARTICLE FEEDBACK
To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
