Iraq 'plots attack on its holy cities to discredit US'
By Michael Binyon and Roland Watson
April 02, 2003
IRAQ is planning to attack two of the holiest cities in Shia Islam in an attempt to blame coalition forces and provoke Shia Muslims, allied commanders believe.
The coalition has, therefore, issued strict orders that American and British forces must steer well clear of the holy sites of Najaf and Karbala, even though they lie directly in the path of the advance on Baghdad from the south.
The British and American Governments have told the Muslim world that they will respect the neutrality of the two cities. The move is an attempt to ensure that Iraq cannot launch missiles or detonate bombs in the cities and then blame allied forces.
Last night American soldiers edged through the outskirts of Najaf, trying to flush out an estimated 2,000 troops loyal to President Saddam Hussein and irregular fighters. However, US special forces operating around the city have told army chiefs that Iraqi defenders have set about converting the city’s holiest site into a paramilitary stronghold. Fedayin militias are firing rocket-propelled grenades and mortars from the streets around the shrine, which is near a market, according to US forces.
The defensive set-up presents a potential nightmare for American troops, who regard Najaf as a key target. US military chiefs were hoping to be able to turn over control of the city to the leaders of the Shiite community, believing that it would send a signal to other cities across the south.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, received a telephone call from Kamal Kharrazi, the Iranian Foreign Minister, on Sunday and assured him that General Tommy Franks, the US commander in the Gulf, had ordered all forces to avoid Najaf and Karbala.
Iran has expressed deep concern about the two holy sites, which are visited by thousands of Muslims each year. For many Shia Muslims, these visits are more important than the pilgrimage to Mecca. Clergy at the holy city of Qom in Iran issued a statement last week calling on the belligerents to avoid damaging shrines in Iraq.
Allied sources told The Times that they had evidence that the Iraqi Government had ordered an atrocity in one or other of the cities, such as the targetting of the mosques, the killing of pilgrims or the shelling of a marketplace.
Najaf is the site of the venerated tomb of Imam Ali, the father of Imam Hussein, whose death in AD680 led to the creation of the Shia branch of Islam. Ali, a cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, was selected to be the fourth caliph, or leader of the Muslim community, after the assassination of Othman, the third caliph and Muhammad’s son-in-law. But Othman’s kinsmen strongly opposed the choice. Their candidate was Muaawiya, the Governor of Syria. He negotiated with Ali to allow for another “official election” after an inconclusive battle in Syria.
When Ali agreed to this humiliation, a group of his followers abandoned him and vowed to kill both candidates. They succeeded in killing Ali in Kufa, and he was buried in Iraq, where a century later the city of Najaf was founded around the site of his tomb. Muaawiya became caliph by default.
Yet the quarrel was not over. Hussein, Ali’s younger son and the Prophet’s grandson, renewed the claim to the caliphate. He left the safety of Mecca for Kufa, where he and his supporters raised the banner of rebellion against the Damascus-based Omayyad caliph. His convoy was intercepted and slaughtered in the battle of Tuff on the plains of Karbala, where he and his brother were buried.
Their deaths marked the final schism between their followers, known as Shia (or “partisans” in Arabic), and the majority Sunni Muslims. Both Ali and Hussein were proclaimed martyrs. Their supporters maintain that only the descendants of Ali and his wife, Fatima (the Prophet’s daughter), are the rightful rulers of the Muslim community. Shia doctrine ascribes infallibility and divine right to Ali’s descendants, who are referred to as imams. Most Shia Muslims recognise 12 imams, the last of whom disappeared in AD880. His return is eagerly awaited as the day when justice will be restored on Earth.
Shia Islam has its stronghold in the eastern Muslim world, especially in Iran, Iraq and around the Gulf. Najaf and Karbala have long been cities of enormous importance to their followers and a ritual calendar has evolved, based on the veneration of the tombs. Many carry soil from Karbala to prayers with them; others sleep with tablets made from the city’s earth under their pillows.
The cult of martyrdom is also deeply ingrained in Shia Islam, which has long been a downtrodden minority. Piety is equated with protest and suffering, and devotees whip and cut themselves to commemorate Hussein’s killing. Any casualties in the city in the present fighting would therefore be charged with extraordinary symbolism.
The imposing mosque in Karbala has a golden dome and the city has become a centre of Shia scholarship. The destruction of Hussein’s tomb at Karbala by puritanical Wahhabi Muslims from Arabia two centuries ago has led to lasting suspicion between the religious establishments of Iran and Saudi Arabia.
The divide between Sunni and Shia Muslims is most acute in Iraq, where the two communities co- exist uneasily. Long historical rivalry lies behind Shia hostility to the Sunni rulers in Baghdad, and this has been exacerbated by the brutalities of Saddam’s regime against the majority Shia, thought to account for 60 per cent of Iraq’s population.
Since the 1991 uprising, however, Saddam, brought up a Sunni, has made great efforts to win over the Shia and has been filmed praying at Karbala. He has given huge sums for the upkeep of the main mosque.
British officials claim that troops are now making steady gains in winning over the suspicious Shia population in the south. Some 300 Shia militia fought alongside US forces in an attack on Iraqi positions at ash-Shatraf, north of al-Nasiriyah, last week. This is seen as evidence that Shia fighters are losing their fear of Saddam’s regime.
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