BAGHDAD — U.S. troops began to withdraw from a base near the city of Najaf yesterday, signaling an unwillingness to enter the Shi’ite holy city in pursuit of a radical cleric the U.S.-led coalition once vowed to capture “dead or alive.”
Some 2,500 American soldiers encircled the home of the holiest shrine of Shi’ite Islam last week after rebel cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr — who also faces murder charges for the death of a rival cleric last year — sent his Mahdi’s Army to fight coalition troops in Baghdad and several southern Iraqi cities.
Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, told the 3rd Brigade Task Force the withdrawal was intended to ease tensions with Iraq’s 60 percent Shi’ite population.
“The problem of Sadr is bigger than Sadr. It is the whole Shi’ite community and the holy shrine,” Gen. Sanchez said. “We have just about eliminated all his influence across the south.”
The general emphasized that the main issue was concern about fighting the cleric and his militia among holy shrines that, if damaged, could further polarize Iraq’s Shi’ites against the coalition.
The top religious leader of the Iraqi Shi’ites, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, while withholding any endorsement of Sheik al-Sadr’s willingness to fight American forces, has warned against an assault on Najaf, where he also resides.
“The real center of mess is right here,” Gen. Sanchez told the troops. “The problem is that if we launch you into the city of Najaf and we get you into a major firefight, and if we get into destroying the holy shrines, it will create a backlash.”
Although the troops will be pulled away from their forward operating base about 10 miles outside Najaf, Gen. Sanchez vowed to confront Sheik al-Sadr in future conflicts and repeated the desire of U.S. forces to “kill or capture” him.
Sheik al-Sadr has been a harsh critic of the U.S. occupation since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime just over a year ago. U.S. officials were content to mostly ignore the junior cleric, who commands far less respect from Iraq’s Shi’ite population than other senior clerics such as Ayatollah al-Sistani.
But a decision by U.S. civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer to shut down the sheik’s newspaper for publishing anti-coalition articles set off a direct confrontation that resulted in pitched battles in Najaf and other cities.
Since the shrine to Imam Ali, the holiest figure in Shi’ite Islam, is based in Najaf, any assault on the city would have likely drawn the ire of more moderate and tolerant clerics, such as Ayatollah al-Sistani.
A call by the senior ayatollah for violent opposition to the occupation would likely result in widespread fighting. The forceful entry of American troops into Shi’ism’s holiest city could also infuriate Shi’ites from Pakistan, Iran and Lebanon.
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