Death set to ignite tinderbox in Iraq
By Torcuil Crichton
Iraq was last night poised on the edge of a full-scale religious uprising as the assassination of Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi fed oxygen to the tinderbox siege of the holy cities of Najaf and Falujah.
Hundreds of foreign fighters, including Palestinians, have already poured into Iraq, the new front line in the battle against the “infidels”, making the peaceful resolution of the siege of the Shiite holy city of Najaf a near impossibility.
Just as crowds of Hamas supporters gathered outside Gaza City’s Shifa hospital vowing revenge after the killing, so too would the foreign fighters within the walls of Najaf stiffen their resolve against what will be seen as the latest attack on the Arab world.
Last night supporters of the wanted Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said talks with the US troops encircling the holy city of Najaf had collapsed and that an attack was imminent.
On the US side Colonel Dana Pittard, head of the 3rd Brigade Task Force that has assembled outside the besieged city, was told yesterday that al-Sadr’s militiamen were not in full control of what is an explosive situation.
Phil Kosnett, head of the beleagured Coalition Provisional Authority, based in the city, said a peaceful resolution looked unlikely.
“There are gunmen and thugs and many of them have come to town to take advantage of the situation. Al-Sadr does not have total control over all the gunmen who are running around the streets of Najaf,” said Kosnett. “If al-Sadr could be trusted to a peaceful resolution of the crisis that would be one thing. Now it is very difficult to say what is going to happen.”
As journalists within the city reported gunfire from the northwest, where coalition troops are encamped, it became clear that in the besieged city and at the bloody stand-off in Sunni-dominated Falujah the US faced the nightmare scenario of an uprising by the two main muslim denominations in Iraq.
As well as facing the volatile religious situation the US has risked further instability in Iraq over the death of Rantissi. Israel’s full frontal assault on the Hamas leadership has already been exploited by Osama bin Laden to lever further violence against the US and its allies. In his latest audio cassette, offering a truce to European countries that pulled of Iraq, bin Laden also promised vengeance for the Israeli attacks on Hamas.
The 2500 US troops massed on the outskirts of Najaf to kill or arrest al-Sadr and his followers have been warned that to cross the ‘‘red lines’’ into the holy city would spell outright war with Iraqi counter-insurgents that would quickly escalate into a religious uprising against the US occupiers.
Even moderate Shiite clerics have declared that if there is bloodshed in Najaf there will be fury across Iraq. The Iman Ali shrine in Najaf and the nearby Kufa mosque are among the holiest sites in Shiite Islam. There was still no word last night on the fate of the only US military hostage among 40 foreign nationals who have been kidnapped in Iraq in recent days. Private Keith Matthew Maupin, from Ohio, was paraded on al- Jazeera television as a captive of masked Iraqi insurgents. He had been missing in action for eight days.
The final two Japanese hostages were released in the Iraqi capital yesterday in apparent good health. The two men were handed over to a Japanese delegation at Baghdad’s Um al-Qura mosque. They were reported to be in good shape.
They were believed to be freelance journalist Jumpei Yasuda, 30, and Nobutaka Watanabe, 36, a former member of the Japanese military with ties to a civic group. Both were posted missing on April 14.
They were handed over to the Muslim Clerics Association, a Sunni group that has facilitated the release of several groups of foreign hostages in Iraq, including three other Japanese released on April 15.
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