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Iraq : Najaf standoff over, Al-Sadr withdraws after a deal |
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Where the US and Iraqi bullying failed, the appeal of the Shiite Grand Ayatollah, Ali al- Sistani, worked for the peace-full resolution of the three-week standoff between the US forces and the radical Shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr. The militants have filed out of the revered Imam Ali shrine and turned its keys over to representatives of the top Shia cleric, al-Sistani, after a peace agreement to end the three weeks of fighting with US and Iraqi forces. The handover of the keys of the shrine which the militants were using as a hideout was symbolic, yet crucial step in ending the bloody crisis that has plagued this city since August 5.
Ali al-Sistani, soon after his arrival from London where he underwent a surgery for a heart ailment, led a big march to Najaf where he struck a five-plan peace deal, duly approved by the US and Iraqi authorities. The peace plan calls for Najaf and Kufa to be declared weapons-free cities, for all foreign forces to withdraw from Najaf, for police to be in charge of security, for the Government to compensate those harmed by the fighting, and for a census to be taken to prepare for elections expected to the country by January. After the deal was struck, announcements in the name of al-Sadr gave the orders to his Mehdi militia men to accept the peace deal and hand over their weapons. Later, his spokesman said that no Mehdi militia members have been arrested. After handing over their weapons, they have returned to their families to pursue studies. Al-Sadr himself will retreat to pursue his religious studies.
Despite the fierce fighting in Najaf and the US tanks and armoured personnel carriers laying siege around the Imam Ali shrine, the holiest shrine to Shias around the world, Muqtada al-Sadr had refused to lay down the arms and surrender. Rather, he had given a call to his Mehdi Army militia to fight till death. He himself had been hit by a flying shrapnel last week. An earlier attempt by a seven member delegation by the political conference which was called in Baghdad to select an interim National Assembly had failed to sell to al-Sadr a peace plan under which he would disarm his militia, he and his men would be given amnesty and the Mehdi militia could be converted to a political party. Al-Sadr who refused to meet the Iraqi political conference delegation later sent a letter to the chairman of the conference saying he was ready for negotiations but he would not hand over the control of the shrine to US and Iraqi forces, but only to al-Sistani. But, Sistani, who was recovering in a hospital in London expressed his inability to play any active role until he returned to the country. And as soon as he recovered, he returned and appealed to the people to join him in a long peace march to Najaf where the US forces were in eye-to-eye confrontation with the Mehdi forces ensconced in the Imam Ali mosque but not ready to enter the premises for fear of its strong reaction among the Shia population across Iraq and elsewhere. They wanted the Mehdi army and al-Sadr holed up there to run out of their supplies and then starve and surrender. They US tanks drove as close as 300 metres from the shrine. Seeing no way to break the blockade, al-Sadr found no alternative but to reach an honourable deal.
Until the return of al-Sistani, Mehdi militia had refused to quit the shrine and al-Sadr had given a call to his men to fight till death. Fighting intensified as American and Iraqi troops closed in on the sacred shrine, sometimes fighting fierce battles around the shrine with Mehdi army. US forces even used AC-130 gunship which blasted some rebel positions away from the shrine after a weekend of fruitless talks between al-Sadr’s aides and religious authorities to hand over the keys of the shrine. Al-Sistani arrived at a time when fierce fighting killed 75 and injured over 300 in Najaf on August 26.
Political observers say the kid-glove treatment of al-Sadr after days of fighting that left hundreds of Iraqis dead points to the dilemma faced by American commanders and Iraq’s new leaders. As much as both groups would like to capture or kill Sadr, neither the American military nor Iraq’s US-appointed government feels politically strong enough to get away with it. It is for that reason that Sadr and his Mehdi army would almost certainly be back. Observers point out that it was Sadr, after all, whose Mehdi army began the current round of bloodletting by attacking a police station earlier this month after the Iraqi police arrested one of his aides. It was Sadr who had turned the Imam Ali shrine into a fortress from which he dared the government and the Americans to expel him. And it was Sadr, facing an indictment for the murder of a cleric, who had mocked the Iraqi Government’s efforts to arrest him.
Observers say success in evicting al-Sadr’s Mehdi army from the holy shrine of Imam Ali even without the slightest damage to the complex will not by itself make a decisive change in the overall picture. The US must prepare for a long haul. Hasty retreat from Iraq will only boost the morale of fundamentalist Islamist terrorists who will feel encouraged to launch further strikes against fortress America itself.
President Bush has admitted for the first time that he had miscalculated post-war conditions in Iraq. The NEW YROK TIMES quoted him on Aug 26 as saying during a 30 minute interview that he made a miscalculation of what the conditions would be in the post-war Iraq. But, he insisted that the 17-month long insurgency was the unintended by-product of a swift victory against Saddam Hussein’s military. President Bush deflected further enquires as to what had gone wrong with the occupation.
According to the Pentagon, 969 US troops have died in Iraq since the invasion, 828 of them since 30 April, 2003. An additional 6690 service members have been wounded, most of them during occupation. The number of US casualties is expected to cross the one thousand mark well before the November elections in the US. A USA Today database which analyzed unclassified US government security reports, shows attacks against US and allied forces have averaged 49 a day since the handover of sovereignty on June 28, as compared with 52 a day in the four weeks leading up to the transfer. Iraqi guerillas are relying heavily on weapons that allow them to attack and then slip away, such as roadside bombs and mortars. In June and July, US and Iraq forces were attacked with 759 roadside bombs and uncovered at least 400 others before they exploded.
US officials had said they expected the attacks to drop as Iraqis re-established control over their country. Their thinking: Iraqi security forces would be better at gathering intelligence and support for militants would erode because insurgents would be attacking Iraqis rather than US occupation forces.
Political observers say one can understand President Bush’s miscalculations, wrong forecasts and the present predicament. A USA TODAY study quotes Radolph Gangle, a retired officer who heads the US Marine Corps’ Centre for Emerging Threats and Opportunities as saying that there was no single cause driving the insurgents; nor was there a unified leadership. Rather, there is a complex interplay of a variety of factors and groups with divergent, if not completely contradictory, goals to achieve. The whole hodge-podge of differing groups that Gangle refers to, includes former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, former military officers who want to return to power, fundamentalist Islamist groups wanting an Islamic State, foreign fighters who want to hurt the US and criminals after money.
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