Cleric demands militias quit cities

IRAQ’S most influential Shi’ite cleric yesterday demanded that all armed groups withdraw from the embattled holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, where nine militiamen loyal to a rebel cleric were killed in heavy fighting with US forces.

The statement by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani came after the US administrator in Iraq vowed to continue the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis as scheduled despite Monday’s killing of the head of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

“Terrorists are trying to stop Iraq’s march to sovereignty and peace,” US administrator Paul Bremer said at a memorial service in Baghdad for Izzadine Saleem, who was killed by a suicide bomber on Monday at a checkpoint near coalition headquarters.

“They will not succeed. We must continue the political process leading to an interim government next month and to elections next year,” he added.

The killing was a major setback to US efforts to stabilise Iraq just six weeks before the June 30 handover of sovereignty. The US-led coalition is struggling to contain an insurgency in Sunni areas north and west of Baghdad, as well as an uprising in the Shi’ite heartland to the south led by Muqtada al-Sadr.

Ayatollah al-Sistani, whose office in Najaf came under fire, urged Iraqis not to join in protests.

Al-Sadr had called for peaceful demonstrations against incursions and damage to mosques and shrines in recent fighting, allegedly by US troops. The US military says militiamen have used some Muslim holy places as firing positions and weapons storage sites.

“The office of Seyed al-Sistani directs all citizens not to go to the holy city of Najaf at the moment,” the statement said, using the title for a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. Moderate clerics, including Ayatollah al-Sistani, are believed to have tense relations with al-Sadr.

Early yesterday, US troops killed nine fighters loyal to al-Sadr in Karbala, said Mutaz al-Hasani, a witness.

Ten Iraqi fighters were wounded in the clashes.

In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday that the situation in Iraq is tougher than Britain anticipated last year.