Cleric Urges No Resistance as U.S. Moves Into Najaf
abcnews.go.com
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - After battling pro-Baghdad loyalists, U.S. troops moved into the center of Iraq's holy city of Najaf on Thursday, bolstered by an edict from a top local Shi'ite Muslim leader urging people not to interfere with them.
U.S. officers said they believed most of the Fedayeen paramilitary fighters loyal to President Saddam Hussein had dropped their equipment and fled -- but that a few were still in the city putting up a fight.
"Ideally, we would kill them all," Col. Joseph Anderson, a brigade commander of the 101st Airborne Division, told Reuters. "But if they choose to change their mind and flee, there's not much we can do."
The U.S. military said a senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who had been held under house arrest by Saddam's government, had ordered local people in a "fatwa" (edict) not to interfere with the U.S.-led invasion troops.
"We believe this is a very significant turning point and another indicator that the Iraqi regime is approaching its end," Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks told reporters in Qatar.
A Reuters correspondent in Baghdad just one week ago saw a fatwa issued by Sistani still pinned to the door of a main Shi'ite mosque in the capital saying Iraqis would "stand together against any invasion."
In London, the Shi'ite Al Khoei foundation confirmed the ayatollah's new ruling and said that until now his followers had been "confused" over whether to fight the U.S forces.
Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, is one of Iraq's most important religious centers and home to the revered gold-domed Ali Mosque, which contains the tomb of Imam Ali bin Abi Talib, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed.
Some Najaf residents appeared alarmed by the actions of the U.S. troops. CNN footage showed soldiers trying to calm a crowd who apparently thought they were planning to seize the mosque.
U.S. military sources said one of the two brigades of the 101st Airborne in Najaf had been in negotiations with Sistani about how to govern Najaf in the absence of pro-Saddam forces.
ARMS CACHES
Earlier, mortars, rockets and sporadic gunfire had echoed before dawn before U.S. soldiers fanned out on house-to-house missions to search and secure poor neighborhoods.
"Every building can hold a surprise. It is extremely resource-intensive and it takes a lot of time," said Captain J.P. Swoopes.
Soldiers said they had found sizeable caches of rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and multiple-launch rocket systems in searches of homes on Wednesday.
A mine-making factory was found at the local university, U.S. officers said, and in a sign of continued resistance, minefields that had been cleared following Wednesday's attack were found to be planted with new mines on Thursday.
Dozens of suspected Saddam Fedayeen militia and ruling Baath Party activists were captured. There were no reports of U.S. casualties.
Soldiers were looking especially for pick-ups or flat-bed trucks which could be used as "technicals" -- battlewagons with machineguns or anti-aircraft cannon mounted on the back.
When they saw them, A-10 Warthog ground-attack fighters opened fire with 30 mm depleted uranium rounds. On one street, this correspondent saw the remains of two technicals that had apparently been torn up by A-10s and all the occupants killed.
Some civilians waved and smiled at U.S. troops but most looked on blankly or simply took cover in their homes.
Ayatollah Sistani, the supreme religious authority at the al-Hawza al-Ilmiyya theological school in Najaf, is one of Iraq's top Shi'ite clerics and his help could be valuable as U.S. troops seek the support of ordinary Iraqis.
Shi'ites form a majority in Iraq, and especially in southern areas now largely controlled by U.S.-led forces, but have long been dominated by the Sunni minority, to which Saddam belongs. |
