Word: shrines
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Tucked deep in a tangled warren of dusty alleyways, the golden dome of the Imam Ali shrine gleams in the afternoon sun. Its shining twin minarets reflect light on the ornately painted tiles that cover every surface not faced with gold. But the Old City ringing the glorious shrine, where millions of Shi'ite faithful come on pilgrimage, has been battered by three weeks of savage battle into a blasted warscape of empty, broken buildings. With the dramatic intervention last week of the Shi'ites' most revered leader, Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani, 74, the domed shrine was saved...
Hours later, al-Sadr accepted a deal that would empty the shrine of his fighters, and in return U.S. forces would withdraw from the city, turning over responsibility for keeping the peace to Iraqi police. But uncertainty lingered over how long the truce would last. The upstart cleric, whose Mahdi Army was allowed to withdraw intact, has reneged on agreements before, and this latest tactical retreat, after hundreds of his men had been killed, left him and his surviving militiamen free to fight another day. The interim Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had repeatedly vowed to crush...
...IMAM ALI SHRINE, WE HAD to walk through the battlefield. Snipers' bullets buzzed past our heads and lodged in the wall, sending a fine dust of pulverized plaster over us as I, my interpreter Hussam and three Mahdi fighters on the street tumbled into an open storefront to escape the barrage. The militiamen stood between us and the door to shield us from the unrelenting fire. They were young, polite and dedicated to their cause. As they saw it, they were protecting their holiest site from infidel Americans. But the Mahdi fighters were perfectly willing to safeguard...
DISASTER AVERTED A first-person account from inside Iraq's holiest Shi'ite shrine as peace returns to Najaf. Will it last...
LESSONS OF NAJAF Even if the battle for control of the Imam Ali shrine ends in Muqtada al-Sadr's retreat, the struggle for control of the country is far from over. Strike too hard, and the insurgency will only harden. Back down, and risk losing politically. Is there a way out of this dilemma...