Iraqi Police Massacre Shiites

WASHINGTON – Demonstrators waving white flags and carrying flowers and copies of the Koran were massacred yesterday outside of the holy city of Najaf, Iraq. Police fired on the marchers, who had been called to mobilize by Iraq’s senior Shiite ayatollah.Reports of the casualties differed at press time. A spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress, Entifadh Qanbar, told The New York Sun that he had received a report that up to 17 people were dead and scores more were injured. Mr. Qanbar said he was receiving his report from Abu Zainab, a community leader in Kufa, Iraq, a city four miles northeast of Najaf. Mr. Zainab said the marchers were fired at by Iraqi police from three directions and sought refuge in the city’s soccer stadium. When they arrived in the stadium, Mr. Zainab said the group was hit by artillery fire. The Associated Press reported that only two died from the clashes in Kufa.The clashes began after Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, after returning home from London, where he had successful heart surgery, called on all members of the Shiite faith to peacefully march on Najaf yesterday. Najaf is the site of the holy shrine of Imam Ali, the founder of the Shiite faith, and it has been under siege for three weeks as American and Iraqi soldiers fight the remnants of outlaw cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army.American planes bombed neighborhoods in the city yesterday as the Iraqi government issued Mr. al-Sadr what it said was an ultimatum to either desert the city or face certain attack on his headquarters.A spokesman for Ayatollah Sistani in London, Al Sayyid Murtadha al-Kashmiri, said the cleric was heading to Najaf in order to “stop the bloodshed.” Mr. al-Kashmiri added, “Those believers who wish to join him, let them join.” Ayatollah Sistani crossed into Iraq from Kuwait yesterday in a caravan of sport utility vehicles, according to the Associated Press.The clashes between police and demonstrators in Najaf could spark a wider conflict between Iraq’s majority Shiites and the government led by Prime Minister Allawi. While Mr. Allawi is Shiite by birth, his organization in exile was comprised of Baath Party officials who were disillusioned with Saddam Hussein but still committed to the ideology used to dominate Iraq’s majority religious sect for more than 35 years.Already the call from Ayatollah Sistani for a peaceful march has attracted support from senior Shiite leaders in Mr. Allawi’s government. Both the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which holds the powerful Finance Ministry, and the Dawa party, which holds the vice presidency, came out in favor of Ayatollah Sistani’s initiative.A Dawa leader and Iraqi Vice President, Ibrahim al-Jafari, returned yesterday from Iran, where he met with President Khatami. Iran is widely believed to be a chief funding source for Mr. al-Sadr’s rebel fighters and other insurgency groups in Iraq. Iraq’s Defense Minister Hazim al-Shaalan has even threatened Iran directly with action if it continues to stoke the rebellion in Najaf. On August 9, Iraqi authorities arrested the Baghdad bureau chief of Iran’s official news agency.Nonetheless, Mr. Allawi’s government was allegedly considering sending a high-level mission to Tehran to launch negotiations over the Najaf siege. Two sources close to the government said Mr. Allawi was considering sending his deputy Barham Salih to begin talks on how Iran could defuse the situation. Mr. Allawi publicly rejected an offer Tuesday from Iran to host a regional conference on the situation in Najaf.Ahmad Chalabi, a leader of the Shiite Political Council, which includes some members affiliated with the Mahdi Army, praised Ayatollah Sistani’s march in a statement for the Arabic press. “We thank God for the arrival of Ayatollah Sistani in Iraq,” the statement said. After again thanking God for the successful completion of Ayatollah Sistani’s surgery, Mr. Chalabi’s statement said, “With this I would like to take the opportunity to declare our complete support to the call from him to all of the Iraqi people to go to the city of Najaf al- Ashraf in a peaceful march to support the people of Najaf, and to encourage all parties to cease their fire and to maintain and protect religious shrines. Also we call for the American forces and all other forces to leave the city of Najaf al-Ashraf and make this holy city stripped of all weapons so that peace and security will be all over Iraq.”Mr. Allawi gave Mr. Chalabi and his allies one day to leave Iraq earlier this month, but soon rescinded the threat related to an indictment from a judge for counterfeiting charges. The judge was appointed by the American viceroy before the formation of the government and has clashed openly with Iraq’s new Justice Ministry. A Washington adviser to Mr. Chalabi, Francis Brooke, told the Sun that Mr. Chalabi has been in daily contact with Mr. Allawi.A Washington representative for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Qubad Talabani, told the Sun yesterday that any negotiation with Mr. al-Sadr may be fruitless. “Muqtada has managed to unite former Baathists, Lebanese Hezbollah, and other regional powers intent on destabilizing Iraq. Therefore I doubt there can be a political solution brokered by the Iraqi government. He has to be defeated.”A scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former political adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority, Michael Rubin, also said that Mr. al-Sadr needs to be defeated. “For people who are afraid of making him a martyr they forget how quickly Iraqis forgot about Saddam’s sons,” he said.Mr. Rubin said that when historians write the story of this war they will say, “The biggest mistake will be the National Security Council’s decision to not go after Muqtada al-Sadr more than a year ago. It is common sense if you leave a wound open it festers.”

Iraqi Police Massacre Shiites

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