With fighting raging and support apparently weakening, forces loyal to rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr on Monday appeared to renew their interest in a negotiated end to the siege of one of Islam’s holiest shrines.
Spokesmen for Sadr said they were willing to be flexible on some of their demands before turning control of the Imam Ali mosque over to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country’s top Shiite religious leader.
A high-ranking Sadr aide, Sheik Ahmed Shibani, said the rebels are willing to let security at the mosque be handled by other religious figures. That view signaled a change from the demand that Sadr’s al-Madhi Army guard the shrine. The sacred site houses the tomb of Imam Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad.
In remarks to reporters Monday, Shibani also seemed to back away from the demand that al-Sistani conduct an inventory of the shrine’s valuables before a hand-over. Al-Sistani had refused to allow his representatives to enter the shrine until the militants leave. Abu Thir Kinany, another Sadr spokesman, warned against intervention by the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.
“A religious committee must be formed to handle this great, sacred shrine,” Kinany said on Al Jazeera television. “We don’t trust this government, and consider it a source of terrorism.”
Monday night, U.S. forces launched a three-pronged attack on the outer ring of the mosque area, destroying al-Mahdi targets within 200 yards of the shrine. In the process, U.S. Army and Marine units crossed the ring road, which encircles the mosque neighborhood, for the first time.
U.S. troops approached the shrine area from the north, south and west, pounding targets with AC-130 warplanes, Hellfire missiles and tank rounds.
Resistance was heaviest to the south of the mosque in the Old City, where soldiers attacked a complex of buildings. At least two large fires burned until the early morning, and repeated explosions echoed throughout the city.
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In the nearby cemetery, the scene of many recent battles, U.S. tanks pounded a building and barrier wall that military officials believe militiamen used for cover. The wall was rigged with explosives set to detonate when the Americans approached, officials said.
Unlike previous nights, opposition in the cemetery and west of the shrine was light, perhaps a signal the militia is softening.
“I think they’re tired, but I don’t think they’ve given up,” said Army Lt. Col. Myles Miyamasu, commander of 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment. He said the strikes were designed to further “squeeze the militia.” Despite reports that Sadr’s followers removed their weapons from the shrine, military radar picked up a mortar attack originating there, officials said.
Elsewhere in Iraq, the Health Ministry reported that 14 Iraqis were killed and 89 wounded during fighting in the last 24 hours. One of the fatalities was a child in Najaf.
The standoff at the shrine has emerged as the first major test of authority for the U.S.-installed Iraqi government, which is led by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Any attempt to seize the shrine risks inflaming Iraq’s majority Shiite population, which considers the site sacred. But Sadr’s defiance has made Allawi appear weak, alternating between threats of military action and pledges to avoid attacks on the shrine.
A deal in which Sadr handed control to al-Sistani, a far more eminent figure, would appear to allow both sides to save face. Sadr would avoid capitulating to the government as his forces pack up and leave.
Jaber Habib, a political scientist at Baghdad University, pointed to growing pressure on Allawi and Sadr to bring the crisis to a peaceful resolution.
“The Iraqi people don’t want more bloodshed,” he said. “At the end of the day, you can’t get a solution only with the military. You cannot only show muscles.”
Also Monday, freed American journalist Micah Garen was in U.S. hands at an undisclosed location in Iraq. An embassy official said Garen, who was kidnapped this month in southern Iraq, is “in fine shape.”
Garen, 36, said he hopes to stay in Iraq to continue working on a documentary project about the looting of archeological sites.
“This experience hasn’t made me want to leave at all,” Garen told Associated Press Television News late Sunday.