Iraq’s prime minister, Ayad Allawi, on Thursday night issued a ”final call” for the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to disarm his fighters and leave Najaf’s mosque — or face the prospect of a devastating final assault.
Using blunt language, Allawi said the radical Shia cleric had to accept the government’s demands personally and in writing to end the fighting in Najaf.
”This is the final call for them to disarm, vacate the holy shrine, engage in political work and consider the interests of the homeland,” he said, without specifying however how long al-Sadr had to comply.
On Thursday night a United States aerial and ground onslaught pounded positions held by al-Sadr’s fighters close to the revered Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, lighting up the night sky behind the gold-domed mosque, but it was unclear if it was the prelude to the threatened assault.
US armoured personnel carriers could be seen inside the perimeters of the old city a few hundred metres from the shrine. The streets leading to the shrine were packed with Mehdi fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades, and AK47 and sniper rifles.
Iraq’s defence minister, Hazem Shalan, said Thursday’s military action in Najaf was merely a ”clean up operation” on the fringe of the old city. Earlier, he had suggested the final offensive was just hours away.
Speaking in Baghdad, Allawi made it clear he had not given the order for Iraqi government forces, assisted by huge US firepower, to storm the shrine — a move that will inevitably provoke outrage not only in Shia-dominated Iraq but across the Arab world.
”I have not issued orders to attack the mosque. If anything happens to the shrine it will be the fault of the militia,” he said.
The standoff has plunged Iraq’s interim government into its worst crisis so far.
On Thursday al-Sadr reverted to his trademark defiance, a day after he apparently agreed to a demand from Iraq’s national conference to give up fighting and enter mainstream politics. On Tuesday he had refused to meet a delegation from the conference that travelled to the shrine to meet him.
Asked about the government’s latest demands, Sheikh Ahmed al-Sheibani, a senior Sadr aide and Mahdi army commander, told reporters in Najaf: ”It is very clear that we reject them.”
Away from the shrine, al-Sadr’s Mehdi militia also showed few signs of giving up. At least seven police were killed and 21 injured on Thursday after three mortar bombs landed on a Najaf police station.
”Look at me, I am an old man,” said Ahmad al-Kaabi a 62-year-old farmer from Nassiriya, armed with a sniper rifle ”but I am willing to die for the sake of the Imam [Ali].”
Defiance was also apparent in Basra, as al-Sadr supporters fought their way into an oil installation and ignited buildings and warehouses. Militants had threatened such a spectacular to protest at the Najaf clashes.
Inside the shrine thousands of unarmed Moqtada supporters chanted for him and denounced Allawi.
While there seems little doubt that Iraq’s government has run out of patience with the cleric, who began his latest uprising just over two weeks ago, Allawi did not rule out further negotiations.
He said the delegation snubbed by al-Sadr on Tuesday was prepared to go back to Najaf provided the cleric ”publicly and personally” agreed to their conditions.
”We have left the door open … we are prepared to explore all possible avenues that lead to a peaceful resolution.”
The cleric had to comply with the three-point resolution of the national conference, which called on him to quit the shrine in return for an amnesty. But Allawi made it clear there was no place in Iraq for private militia, and bemoaned the presence of hundreds of ”human shields” at the shrine.
”Human shields are the tactics of Saddam Hussein,” he pointed out.
The crisis has severely dented the credibility of Iraq’s interim government, not least because before yesterday it had already delivered al-Sadr several other ”final” warnings that had passed without result.
On Thursday Iraq’s minister of state, Kasim Daoud, grimly predicted the cleric was facing his ”final hours”. He demanded he appear on TV and tell his militia to disband — a gesture that would amount to al-Sadr’s political suicide.
Elsewhere, US troops stepped up the pressure on the Mehdi army by staging their deepest raid yet into Sadr City, Baghdad’s vast Shia slum and al-Sadr stronghold. At least 50 Mahdi army fighters were killed during the 24-hour operation, US officials claimed. American tanks later withdrew to the edge of the suburb.
Since the crisis in Najaf erupted al-Sadr has managed to outwit his enemies with an extraordinary display of brinkmanship. But with food, ammunition and water all running out, according to delegates who visited the shrine on Tuesday, it seems unlikely he can hang on much longer. – Guardian Unlimited Â