Word: najaf
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...gathered to hear Muqtada al-Sadr, Iraq's best-known rebel cleric, lead Friday prayers. A fire fight is raging for control of a nearby bridge, between members of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and U.S. forces. There's another battle up the road in al-Sadr's hometown, Najaf. As the mosque broadcasts reports of glorious victories over U.S. tanks, the worshippers seem unmoved by the fighting. "The U.S. troops do this every Friday," says one of the faithful, Sheik Halim al-Fatlawi. "The Americans want to terrorize us into not coming to prayers...
...past six weeks, Kufa and the two cities that house the holiest shrines of Shi'as, Najaf and Karbala, have been the center of al-Sadr's revolt. His militia claim to be protecting the shrines from U.S. forces that have besieged the cities. U.S. commanders insist al-Sadr is a small-time threat whose appeal is limited to a ragtag bunch of angry young men. But judging by the number and intensity of worshippers thronging the mosque in Kufa last Friday, the U.S. may be underestimating the rebel leader. In fact, the more the U.S. aims its guns...
...troops finally manage to cut the road just outside the city. In response, locals begin flagging down approaching cars, warning drivers of the checkpoints ahead and showing them how to avoid the blockade by taking a circuitous side route. Later, when U.S. troops close the road between Kufa and Najaf, prayergoers snake around back streets, along dusty trails and through a massive garbage dump. The mounds of trash give cars almost perfect cover as they slip into Kufa in time for prayers...
...marginal nuisance. But since launching its uprising in April, his militia has turned southern Iraq into a grinding standoff for the overwhelmingly superior coalition forces. U.S. officials say the Mahdi Army has perhaps 5,000 fighters nationwide, but last Friday there were almost that many in Kufa and nearby Najaf, 6 miles away...
...reasons for cutting deals with both the insurgents in Fallujah and the Sadrists at Najaf and elsewhere is that the essential requirement of the U.S. for the June 30 handover is a modicum of calm. If Coalition forces wage battles of the type that have raged in Baghdad's Shiite slums and across the south in recent weeks, Iraqis will have a hard time believing that anything has changed with the hand-over. U.S. officers running the war on the ground appear to have concluded some time ago that it is unrealistic to imagine that the insurgents can be eliminated...