The Hindu : International : Najaf peace deal: Militants hand over keys to Sistani aides, quit shrine

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Saturday, Aug 28, 2004

International

International

Najaf peace deal: Militants hand over keys to Sistani aides, quit shrine

NAJAF, AUG. 27. Militants filed out of the revered Imam Ali shrine in the holy city of Najaf and turned its keys over to representatives of Iraq's top Shia cleric on Friday in the wake of a peace agreement to end three weeks of fighting with U.S. and Iraqi forces.

The handover of the keys to one of Shia Islam's holiest sites — which the militants have been using as a hideout — was a symbolic, yet crucial, step in ending the bloody crisis that has plagued this city since August 5.

``Now the holy shrine compound has been evacuated and its keys have been handed over to the religious authority,'' Hamed al-Khafaf, an aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani, told Al-Arabiya television. The transfer came hours after Ayatollah Al-Sistani brokered the peace deal.

Earlier on Friday, thousands of Shia pilgrims streamed into the shrine and filed out mixed with militants, who had been inside. The shrine later appeared empty and its doors were shut.

Weapons surrendered

Iraqi forces had taken control of the Old City and dozens of Iraqi police and National Guardsmen deployed around the shrine compound on Friday afternoon — but did not enter. Some kissed the doors leading to the compound, others burst into tears. Some residents of the devastated neighbourhood waved to them and yelled, ``Welcome. Welcome.''

U.S. forces still maintained their positions around the holy site and jet fighters flew overhead. The firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr issued a statement broadcast over the shrine's loudspeakers, ordering his Mehdi Army fighters to lay down their arms and leave Najaf and the neighbouring Kufa.

``To all my brothers in Mehdi Army ... you should leave Kufa and Najaf without your weapons, along with the peaceful masses,'' his statement said.

Dozens of militants piled Kalashnikov rifles in front of Mr. Al-Sadr's office. Thousands of militiamen were still believed to be armed in the city, however.

City calm

Police briefly exchanged fire with militants in one part of the town, however, and some U.S. troops were still facing occasional sniper-fire. Nevertheless, the fierce clashes of previous days had ended and most parts of the city were calm.

In the northern city of Mosul, a car bomb exploded as a U.S. military convoy moved through a traffic circle on the western edge of the city, wounding 10 Iraqi civilians and wounding one U.S. soldier.

A gunbattle between U.S. forces and militants erupted on Friday in central Baghdad's Haifa Street. U.S. troops sealed off the area and explosions could be heard as helicopter gunships circled overhead.

Journalist beheaded

Meanwhile, an Arab language television station said on Friday that it had received a video showing the killing of the kidnapped Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni, whom militants had threatened to execute if Italy did not withdraw troops from Iraq. Al-Jazeera said the video was too graphic to broadcast but appeared to show Mr. Baldoni being slain.

The Italian Premier, Silvio Berlusconi, condemned the reported slaying and reiterated that his country's 3,000 soldiers would not abandon the U.S.-led coalition and Iraq's Government.

— AP

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