NAJAF: Militiamen loyal to Shia radical leader Moqtada Sadr handed the keys of Najaf's Imam Ali shrine to representatives of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on Friday, a spokesman for the top Shia cleric said. "The keys were handed to the office (in Najaf)," Sistani spokesman Sayed Murtadha al-Kashmiri said in London. In Najaf, Sadr's spokesman Sheikh Ahmed al-Shabani confirmed the handover. "The process of handing over the shrine has been completed," Shaibani said. "But there is some technical process that is going on, like estimating the value of assets of the shrine, which includes gold, money and furniture."
| In other words, they're not handing over the shrine, they're selling it... |
Asked whether the militiamen would now leave the mosque compound, Shaibani said: "We are staying in the shrine as pilgrims, but if we were asked to lock the shrine, we would vacate it."
| "Yasss... We are but simple pilgrims..." |
A top US military officer in Iraq said he could not confirm the country's police had taken control of a shrine in Najaf on Friday, and added the whereabouts of Sadr were unknown.
| "He's done a flit! Put on a burka and skeedaddled!" |
"Right now, we cannot confirm that," Rear Admiral Greg Slavonic said when asked about Iraqi government statements that police had seized the Imam Ali Mosque and arrested hundreds of Sadr's Shia fighters. In Baghdad, a spokesman for the interim government said earlier Iraqi police had arrested some 400 militiamen at the Imam Ali shrine.
| Then, later, they said they didn't... |
He added there were rumours Sadr had fled, but said the US military had no intelligence on where he was. Shia Muslim militiamen were still holed up in Najaf's revered shrine late on Friday, with no Iraqi police in sight despite government reports to the contrary, said a correspondent at the mosque.
More, from Khaleej Times...
The symbolic handover came after a day of confusion in which Iraqi government officials insisted against all evidence on the ground that police had entered the mosque compound and detained several hundred militiamen. An AFP correspondent in the shrine said he had not seen a single policeman.
| Prob'ly came in the back door... |
On the contrary, he said fighting continued sporadically on the south side of the Old City between the militiamen and US-backed forces that have surrounded the shrine compound. In Washington, a US defense official strongly rejected the claims of Iraqi spokesmen. "Not a lick of truth to it," he said. "We are still outside of the shrine, and so are the Iraqi police." It was unclear why government officials in Baghdad had so overstated the situation on the ground.
| My guess would be beause the coppers on site simply made up something heroic. It's not like it hasn't happened before... |
"The Iraqi police entered the mosque to discover 500 men with light arms who were prepared to surrender," interior ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim had told CNN. "We, in cooperation with the appropriate religious authorities, were able to restore control without any fight and help the people inside."
| "Or at least that's what they tell me..." |
The spokesman suggested Sadr might have slipped away during the night, but the claim was vigorously rejected by a spokesman for the cleric who insisted he "will not leave Najaf except (through) martyrdom."
| "Of course I know where he is! He's at... Saaaaay! Youse guys are tryin' to get me to tell!" |
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