The rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the Iraqi government agreed on Thursday night to a peace deal to end more than three weeks of fighting in Najaf, as a peace initiative by returning Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani quickly bore fruit.
Under Sistani’s plan, designed to end the chaotic stand-off in Iraq’s holy city, al-Sadr would withdraw his fighters from the Imam Ali shrine on Friday morning.
United States and coalition forces would respond by pulling out of Najaf as soon as prime minister Ayad Allawi gives the word, a government minister, Qasim Daoud, told reporters in Baghdad. Despite his months-long uprising, al-Sadr would be ”as free as any Iraqi citizen to do whatever he likes”, he added.
Thousands of pilgrims waiting outside Najaf would be allowed to enter the complex later today, said a spokesperson for Sistani, Hamid al-Khafaf.
”Mr Sistani received Syed Moqtada today,” he said of the breakthrough talks last night. ”There is an agreement from all the parties. We have found a mechanism that preserves the dignity of all.”
”We are three-quarters towards the end of this crisis,” he added.
Sistani’s plan calls for Najaf and Kufa to be declared weapons-free cities, for all foreign forces to withdraw from Najaf and leave security to the police, and for the government to compensate those harmed by the fighting.
Although previous overtures have fallen flat in the past, there seemed little doubt that the battle between al-Sadr’s Mehdi army and the US military, which has raged across Najaf’s old city, is over — at least for now.
But there was some scepticism on Thursday night as to how long the deal would last. Al-Sadr’s first uprising against US occupation ended in June, only to resume again in early August. Many of the fighters holed up in the network of narrow alleyways around Imam Ali shrine have been killed in a withering American offensive involving tanks, fighter jets and helicopter gunships.
Moreover, there was fury on Thursday from Sistani’s supporters, who had been converging on Najaf behind their spiritual leader when they were involved in deadly clashes with Iraqi police.
Sistani, who was returning to Najaf after treatment in London for a heart problem, had been greeted by a cavalcade of jubilant supporters.
”Sistani means safety and security. This is the thing that Iraq needs most,” Syed Musa al-Naji predicted, just as the cleric drove past in his armoured Land Cruiser.
But if Naji had hoped that the ayatollah’s return to the holy city would bring peace he was mistaken.
Najaf was on the edge of anarchy on Thursday, trapped between the warring forces of an unruly police force, an angry Islamist army and US military firepower. At least 74 people were killed in several incidents.
Sistani had urged his followers to converge on the Imam Ali shrine. When they tried to do so, the police shot them. In the streets leading to Najaf’s old city and the boulevard next to the shrine, it was the same story. Iraqi police sprayed bullets at Mr Sistani’s supporters.
”I came from Diwaniya to receive Grand Ayatollah Sistani,” Muhammad Hassan (27) said from the casualty ward of Najaf’s main hospital. ”The Iraqi police shot me. Why? I have no idea.”
The death toll mounted as staff brought in the wounded on mattresses. ”I was shot by the Mehdi army,” said Sadah Salim, a police officer.
Earlier in the day, Iraqi police in Kufa had opened fire on a mixed demonstration of Sistani and Sadr supporters. Two mortars hit the golden-domed mosque in Kufa, a Mehdi army stronghold from where al-Sadr used to denounce the American occupation of Iraq. At least 25 died.
The inevitable suspicion is that the Iraqi police fired them. But in this febrile atmosphere of chaos, uncertainty and fear nobody could be sure.
”We don’t want the Mahdi army, and we don’t want the Americans either,” said Hassan Ali, who lives just down the road from the site in Najaf where protesters were shot.
Other locals had been confident that Sistani would be able to broker a deal. ”Sistani is the leader of the Shia,” said Abu Zahara, who owns a house on the frontline. ”People listen to him.”
Added neighbour Om Ali: ”Sistani is the tent for all Shia. He is a peaceful man.”
Enzo Baldoni, an Italian journalist kidnapped in Iraq last week, has been killed by his captors, al-Jazeera reported on Thursday night. The station said it had received footage of his execution. His kidnappers had demanded the withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq. – Guardian Unlimited Â