Sadr turns over keys to Marjaiyah leaving Shrine

By: Ismail Zabeeh

HOLY CITY OF NAJAF, Iraq: Tens of thousands of pilgrims streamed into the Imam Ali (p) Shrine on Friday as Moqtada Sadr’s militiamen who had been holed up in the site left it handing the keys to Marjaiyah (Religious Authorities) after a peace deal brokered by Ayatullah As-Sistani.

Heeding a call by Ayatullah Sistani to march on the city, throngs of Iraqis arrived on the outskirts of Holy Najaf Thursday. Just after dawn Friday, they walked past dozens of pockmarked and destroyed buildings to the shrine. They kissed the ornate walls inside and wept after they queued to get in.

Religious authorities locked the doors of the holy shrine after the militiamen left.

“Now the holy shrine compound has been evacuated and its keys have been handed over to the religious authority,” Ayatullah Sistani aide Hamed Al-Khafaf told Al-Arabiya television.

“Moqtada Sadr has officially handed over control of the shrine to Marjaiyah,” Sheikh Hassan Al-Husseini, one of 12 delegates from Ayatullah Sistani's office visiting the shrine, said.

He said the handover happened at 1:30 pm (0930 GMT). Sadr spokesman Sheikh Ahmed Al-Shaibani and the head of Ayatullah Sistani's Beirut office Khaffaf signed a document formally attesting to the handover before all Sadr and Sistani representatives left the compound.

One of Sistani's representatives shut the door behind them and gave the key to Khaffaf, reporters said.

Sadr ordered his fighters to lay down their arms and leave Najaf and neighboring Kufa after agreeing to the peace deal which came after a day of bloodshed. The Health Ministry said 110 people were killed and 501 wounded in mortar and shooting attacks in Najaf and nearby Kufa Thursday.

The militiamen tossed AK-47 assault rifles and mortar launchers into wooden carts being pushed around near the shrine. The Shrine loudspeaker announcements in Sadr's name gave the order.

The five points of the peace plan are:

1 - The cities of Najaf and Kufa must be disarmed and all armed elements in these cities must leave and never return.

2 - The Iraqi police are responsible for restoring security and peace in the two cities.

3 - The US-led multinational force must withdraw.

4 - The Iraqi government must pay compensation to those who have suffered during the crisis.

5 - All parties and political, social and ideological movements must join in a process leading to general elections and total sovereignty, and must create an environment favorable to this process.

According to reports Iraqi police took control of the area around the golden-domed shrine Friday afternoon, as envisaged under the deal. Some kissed the compound's gates, others burst into tears. Some residents of the devastated Old City neighborhood waved to them and yelled out “Welcome, Welcome.”

By mid-afternoon, the narrow streets around the mosque were relatively quiet, destroyed and blackened buildings a testament to the fierce fighting that claimed hundreds and drove world oil prices to record highs.

Iraqi police took reporters to a room that had been used as an Islamic courthouse by Sadr's supporters. Inside the courthouse, about 200 meters (yards) from the sacred shrine, were 15 bloated, blackened corpses covered in flies.

“Cover your noses. This is where the Mehdi Army slit the throats of people and then left them there to rot,” one policeman said. But the Islamic court's chief administrator, Hashim Abu Reef, denied the police accusations.

Iraq State Minister Qassim Dawoud said US and coalition forces would pull out of Najaf as soon as interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi ordered it.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan welcomed steps to end the Holy Najaf standoff but expressed concern over the mounting numbers of dead.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported US President Bush acknowledged for the first time on Thursday he had erred over postwar conditions in Iraq. It quoted him as saying in an interview that he made “a miscalculation of what the conditions would be.”

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