Top Shiite Cleric Plans March to Najaf

Sistani's Surprise Return Complicates Standoff Between U.S., Militia

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, seen arriving in Basra, plans to lead a march today to the Imam Ali shrine, which has been taken over by a militia. (Reuters TV)

NAJAF, Iraq, Aug. 25 -- Iraq's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric made a surprise return to the country Wednesday following medical treatment in London and urged "all believers" to join him here to bring an end to three weeks of fighting between U.S. forces and a Shiite militia force loyal to rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani entered Iraq from Kuwait in a convoy guarded by Iraqi police and settled in the southern city of Basra for the night with plans to drive the 230 miles to Najaf on Thursday. Once he reaches this holy city, his aides said, he will lead a march to the shrine of Imam Ali, which has been taken over by Sadr's militiamen.

U.S. forces breached a road ringing the shrine as they pushed in from two directions and gained footholds in the core of the defenses of Sadr's Mahdi Army, a dramatic move that one commander said could signal "the beginning of the end."

Pockets of militiamen outside the shrine were pounded again by U.S. warplanes and attack helicopters, which unleashed bombs and rockets that fell less than 100 yards from the holy site. Witnesses reported seeing dozens of dead militiamen and said survivors of the air raids were trying to regroup. Although the militia appeared to be at its weakest point since the standoff began on Aug. 5, the witnesses said there were scores of well-armed fighters hiding in the alleys that lead to the shrine.

Sistani's dramatic return posed a potentially significant new complication in the confrontation between security forces and Sadr's militia. Although Sistani has quietly disagreed with Sadr's militant tactics, it is not clear what he wants to accomplish through his march.

Iraqi political leaders expressed concern that the march could be co-opted by Sadr's supporters and that an injection of thousands of noncombatants into the war-torn city could interfere with ongoing military operations and allow the militiamen to escape. But, the political leaders said, it also could reduce tensions by pressuring Sadr to relinquish control of the shrine to more senior Shiite leaders, perhaps leading some fighters to lay down their arms.

Mindful of Sistani's ability to mobilize crowds, Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, flew to Basra late Wednesday to meet with the ayatollah, political sources said. It was not immediately known what the two men discussed.

Mohammed Musawi, a Sistani aide, said the purpose of the march was to save the holy city and shrine. "Americans interfering in this will not help the situation at all," he told the BBC. "We always say that the Americans should be very far from the holy places. They should not involve themselves in this problem."

A spokesman for Sadr said the Mahdi Army would observe a cease-fire along Sistani's route to Najaf on Thursday. "We announce stopping all the operations and fighting in the south and all the provinces which Sistani will pass through, for his sake," Qais Khafaji, the Sadr spokesman in the southern city of Nasiriyah, said in an interview with al-Jazeera television.

Ali Yassiri, a Sadr spokesman in Baghdad, also urged Shiite followers to head to Najaf, a move that could prove risky given the tensions over U.S. military operations so close to the shrine.

"This is a step to show the world that the Iraqis want to end the military operations and try to solve the problem in Najaf peacefully," he said. "We don't want people to go to Najaf to be human shields. We don't want to increase the sufferings of Iraqis."

U.S. commanders immersed in planning and executing a sharp escalation of the battle did not immediately react to the prospect of tens of thousands of Iraqis descending on a war zone. News of Sistani's proclamation reached most field officers in Najaf through indirect routes, such as satellite news channels. A flurry of plans, orders, adjustments and cancellations followed, and in one battalion command center early in the evening, more than a dozen commanders huddled over war plans beside a note -- written in block letters on a legal pad and set aside -- that read: "Al Sistani calls for followers to march to Najaf in next 24 hours."

[After midnight, orders were issued to continue "limited operations" against the militia. Peace talks and cease-fires were widely forecast but not confirmed.

[Early Thursday, an Army cavalry battalion punched across the road ringing the Imam Ali shrine from a third direction. M1-A1 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles advanced to within 75 yards of the shrine complex before pulling back and setting up a strong point in a structure about 150 yards from the mosque.