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In Najaf, Human Shields and Militants Await Tanks
With his militants and human shields holed up inside one of Shi'ite Islam's most sacred shrines, radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is playing a shrewd waiting game before an expected American-led offensive. Sadr's militiamen were inside the Imam Ali shrine and positioned along alleyways and on rooftops with a seemingly endless supply of AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades intermittently fired at U.S. troops in a nearby cemetery. But it was about 2,000 impassioned Iraqi civilian "volunteers" cheering Sadr in the marble-floored courtyard of the mosque who made the biggest show of force Monday. Traveling to Najaf from across Iraq, they are swelling the ranks of Sadr's supporters and could be another reason why U.S. troops may think twice before storming the shrine. "These people are a deterrent to the Americans because they are civilians. They are here so that the Americans won't attack the Imam Ali shrine," said Sheikh Ahmed Shaibani, a senior Mehdi Army commander and top aide to Sadr.The longer the Americans wait to launch any offensive, the more time Sadr has to gain new supporters and entrench them inside the sprawling mosque. Any serious damage to the shrine would enrage millions of Shi'ites around the world, including those who make up about 60 percent of Iraq's population. The volunteers said they had no serious military training. But they seem ready to pick up an AK-47 rifle or use any means to try to block an advance by U.S. tanks positioned in neighborhoods near the shrine. "I will lie on the ground in front of the tanks, or I will kill the Americans to defend Sadr and Najaf," said Fadil Hamed, 30, standing among a group of men who said they walked to Najaf from the southern city of Basra. Last week, thousands of Iraqis staged pro-Sadr protests in several cities and called for the downfall of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Some marched to Najaf and are in the shrine with many of Sadr's Mehdi Army militiamen, who are posing the biggest challenge to Allawi since the U.S.-led occupiers handed power to Iraqis in late June. Beside a makeshift emergency clinic inside the mosque, a woman in a black veil comforted a man who lay on the marble floor with wounds to his right leg and arm. Posted by: tipper 2004-08-17 |
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