Top Cleric Returns to Iraq, Plans Massive Peace March on Najaf

Iraq’s leading Shiite Muslim cleric returned to Iraq unexpectedly Wednesday and called on his devotees to converge on Najaf today in a massive march aimed at ending weeks of fighting in the holy city.

The return of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani from Britain, where he had been treated for a heart ailment, was a potentially decisive development in the standoff in Najaf, where U.S. and Iraqi troops have been battling the militia of anti-American cleric Muqtada Sadr for three weeks. Aides said Sistani planned to travel to Najaf today in a direct and dramatic personal intervention aimed at resolving the situation peacefully.

Sistani was headed to Iraq “to stop the bloodshed,” Sayyid Murtadha Kashmiri, a Sistani representative in London, told Associated Press. “Those believers who wish to join him, let them join.”

As Sistani supporters began loading up cars and preparing to make the trip to Najaf, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was said to be traveling late Wednesday to confer with the cleric in the southern city of Basra, where Sistani was spending the night.

Sistani’s initiative came as more heavy fighting and bombing by U.S. aircraft were reported late Wednesday and early today in Najaf’s Old City. The violence essentially cut off access to the Imam Ali Mosque and raised doubts about whether a march to the shrine was possible.

Asked whether U.S. troops would stop the fighting to allow the peace march, Lt. Col. Myles Miyamasu, commander of the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, said: “That will be a decision made by Grand Ayatollah Sistani and the prime minister. We’re going to do what needs to be done to support Allawi and his government.”

He said Allawi had approved this morning’s intense military operations. U.S. and Iraqi troops moved within 50 yards of the mosque, where Sadr militiamen are holed up and have vowed to fight to the death.

Marines were pressing toward the shrine through a parking garage west of it and had crossed through a cemetery north of it. One Marine was killed in the battle around the garage Wednesday, military officials said. His name was not immediately released.

Troops were fighting for control of several commercial buildings around a traffic circle between the shrine and the cemetery. Though the shrine is immediately adjacent, heavy smoke from explosions and from fires in three of the buildings obscured it from the U.S. position this morning.

U.S. troops were battling a handful of militiamen firing rocket-propelled grenades from one of the buildings. They fought back with AC-130 warplanes and 120-millimeter mortars.

Dawn brought a view of devastation. A green archway bearing Koranic verses still spanned the traffic circle but was blackened and riddled with holes. Two five- or six-story buildings were bombed beyond recognition, and craters marred the road.

“There are still bad guys all around,” said Army Maj. Doug Ollivant, operations officer for the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment. Seconds after he spoke, a mortar shell landed 30 feet from his Humvee.

Sistani left the southern city of Basra this morning in a large convoy. It was unclear exactly what he and his followers would do if they were able to enter Najaf. The governor of Basra province, Hassan Rashid, said they would gather at the outskirts of Najaf and would not enter until all armed men -- except Iraqi police -- had left.

Sistani wields great influence among Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority, and he has sometimes been called the most powerful man in Iraq. In the past, U.S. officials have endeavored not to antagonize him.

But whether the mere presence of the cleric and throngs of his supporters would prompt U.S. and Iraqi soldiers and Sadr’s rebels to leave Najaf remained to be seen. Although Sistani has called before for all armed men to leave the city -- to no avail -- the ayatollah and his advisors seemed convinced Wednesday that his moral stature alone would enable him to bring calm.

There is widespread fear that a frontal assault on the mosque complex, one of Shiite Islam’s most revered sites, could provoke outrage among Muslims worldwide and discredit Allawi’s fledgling government, which took power two months ago. Nevertheless, Iraqi authorities issued an ultimatum this week ordering the rebels to leave the shrine or face an offensive.

Sistani’s arrival -- in a police-escorted convoy from Kuwait -- generated a surge of optimism among Iraqis that a nonviolent end to the standoff was within reach. News of the white-bearded, black-turbaned ayatollah’s arrival was broadcast nationwide and heralded in Shiite mosques and communities.

“He could turn all Iraq and all the Islamic world upside down with one word,” Ali Saleh Tuma said in Baghdad.

Some Shiites began heading to Najaf late Wednesday; others planned to leave early today in convoys of cars, buses and trucks. Many said they would take food and medicine to the battle-weary populace. A pamphlet circulated in Baghdad said the purpose of the rally was to put an end to the armed clashes and stop the “repeated desecration” of holy sites “from all sides.”

But there also were fears that a mass march on a city under assault could cause chaos. Police in Najaf urged people to stay away, and there were reports that roads into the city would be closed.

“I suggest all Sistani’s followers stay in their provinces, because Najaf is still unsafe,” Najaf Police Chief Ghalib Jazaari told reporters. “We are working hard to stabilize the security before the arrival of Ayatollah Sistani.”

Although fighting continued, Jazaari declared Wednesday that the militiamen holed up in the shrine had been defeated. He said several supporters of Sadr had been arrested with artifacts looted from the mosque.

Meanwhile, journalists staying at a Najaf hotel were rounded up by Iraqi authorities and taken to a police station, where officers accused them of inflaming the situation. They were released and returned to the hotel, which remained surrounded by police.

Followers of the rebel cleric have said they would be willing to turn over control of Imam Ali Mosque to Sistani’s office in Najaf. But they have made no such move, maintaining their presence in and around the shrine.

Though Sistani is widely respected, it is unknown how much influence he can exert over Sadr and his supporters.

Sadr’s anti-U.S. rhetoric has won him a strong following among Iraq’s urban Shiite poor. Sistani, though hardly embracing the U.S. presence in the country, embodies a conservative religious establishment in Najaf that largely rejects Sadr’s violent tactics.

Since Sadr’s militia first seized the mosque this spring and fighting broke out with U.S. troops, Sistani has consistently called for the evacuation of armed forces from Najaf. But he has not directly condemned Sadr or his movement.

McDonnell reported from Baghdad and Sanders from Najaf. Staff writer Alissa J. Rubin in Baghdad and special correspondent Raheem Salman in Najaf contributed to this report.