Word: shrines
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...journey to the shrine of Imam Ali was a harrowing trip that would take me and photographer Thorne Anderson through the American cordon around Najaf, crossing a stretch of burned out no-man's land and then navigating the al Mahdi Army lines. It took roughly two and a half hours to go from the southeastern edge of the city, which forced us to cross open ground where snipers fired down on us from their perches in shattered buildings...
Critics say al-Sadr had another motivation in putting himself forward: money. The millions of Shi'ite pilgrims who visit the shrine in Najaf are required to pay a tithe to the Hawza, the supreme Iraqi Shi'ite religious authority. The reigning Grand Ayatullah has the largest say in how the money is divided among Shi'ite groups. When al-Sadr's father held the post, he was able to keep his faction well supplied with cash, but his death substantially reduced the cut received by al-Sadr's family. The Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani, who now holds...
That may have encouraged the sides to step back for a moment from a climactic confrontation. But al-Sadr has a proven track record of standing up to the U.S. by exploiting American reluctance to storm a holy place. "The shrine," says British Major General Andrew Graham, deputy commander of the Multinational Corps-Iraq, "is an invisible shield. He's picked a battlefield where he knows we won't go." That is why both sides have repeated the pattern of go-no-go set in Fallujah. "Tell me," says Graham, "what are the alternatives?" --With reporting by Christopher Allbritton, Brian...
...outside Najaf, it's not inside the city. There are Iraqi troops there, police. Let me put the record right. I spoke [Aug. 10] to the commander of the multinational troops, General [George] Casey, and he has no intention whatsoever of sending American troops into the Imam Ali shrine...
...there is no need nor request. No multinational forces have requested to go to the Imam Ali shrine. I can assure you of this very clearly...