Marajay meet as Holy Najaf ready for 13 Rajab celebrations

By: Ismail Zabeeh

HOLY CITY OF NAJAF, Iraq: As the City of Peace – Holy Najaf – prepares to welcome its visitors and to hold celebrations marking the birth anniversary of Sayyedul Awsiya, Commander of Faithful Al-Imam Ali (pbuh) on 13 Rajab that falls this year on Monday 30 August, Iraq's Religious Authorities known as Marjaiyah held talks on Saturday.

Life spluttered back to normality in the holy city. The main boulevards were again clogged with traffic as shops reopened, but residents whose homes were pounded to dust seethed with fury at Moqtada Sadr for his three-week battle. They assessed damage done to buildings during airstrikes and gunbattles between US troops and Mehdi army militiamen.

Holy Najaf’s four senior Ayaat – Ayatullah Sayyed Ali As-Sistani, Ayatullah Sayyed Muhammad Sa’id Al-Hakim, Ayatullah Ishaq Al-Fayad and Ayatullah Hafiz Bashir An-Najafi held meeting at the home of Ayatullah As-Sistani, who forced Sadr Thursday to end the conflict and quit Najaf's Imam Ali (pbuh) shrine after a four-month occupation.

“They congratulated Ali Sistani for his recovery from medical treatment abroad and he thanked God for preserving them from the danger in the holy city during these such difficult days,” said Ayatullah Sistani representative Hamid Al-Khaffaf.

A spokesman for Ayatullah Bashir An-Najafi said: “A main concern of the Marjaiyah since the beginning has been for the government and the police to take control of the city and establish the rule of law.”

“We are not out of peaceful solutions yet to end the occupation, but when we are no more words will be spoken and armed struggle will become a possibility,” warned Sheikh Ali Najafi after the talks.

The task of reconstruction of the holy city is enormous for Iraq's US-backed interim government, from which Ayatullah Sistani has demanded compensation for those who suffered in the clashes.

Iran's national heritage organization has offered to pay for repairs to the Imam Ali (pbuh) shrine, where fire engines hosed down its outer compound walls, pock marked with bullet and shrapnel holes in the centre of a field of smoking ruins.

Police Captain Karim Ash-Shimari said fire departments in the southern cities of Hilla, Karbala, Samawa and Diwaniya had donated at least three or four engines each to assist the clean-up operation.

Dozens of municipal workers swept what rubble they could into shovels, trucks and lorries, watched by armed Iraqi national guard and police.

The document, signed within 48 hours of the Ayatullah's return to Iraq from medical treatment in London, stipulates that Najaf and Kufa must be disarmed and all armed groups leave, never to return.

END