Top Shiite clerics 'now safe in Najaf'

The three top Shiite Muslim clerics threatened by a mob in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf were safe today after they were rescued by tribal supporters, a cleric in Kuwait said.

“Yesterday afternoon, members of the central Euphrates tribes who support the religious leaders of Najaf entered the city and liberated it from Muktada’s group,” said Sayyed Mohammed Baqer al-Mehri.

He said there was no fighting and that the tribesmen’s presence in the city was seen as a show of support for the religious leaders.

Al-Mehri, who heads the Congregation of Muslim Shiah Olama in Kuwait, had said the group feared for the lives of Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali al-Sistani, Ayatollah Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim and Ayatollah Mohammed Ishaq Fayyed. And he had urged America and Britain to protect them.

He had said “mobs and a number of Baathist agents” who said they were led by Muktada al-Sadr demonstrated outside al-Sistani’s Najaf home on Saturday and demanded both he and Fayyad leave Iraq within 48 hours.

Muktada is the son of Ayatollah Mohammed al-Sadr, who was murdered by the Iraqi government in 1999.

“Now, we don’t feel the danger (to their lives) we felt yesterday,” al-Mehri said, adding that all three top clerics were in an undisclosed “safe place” in Najaf.

Al-Sistani last week issued a fatwa, or religious order, instructing the population to remain calm and not interfere with coalition troops, who at the time were still facing Iraqi forces in Najaf.

A spokesman at US Central Command in Qatar said the incident underscored the volatility in Najaf.

“That’s the citizenry and if that’s the case, they have to take responsibility for themselves to a greater extent,” Lt Cmdr Charles Owens said of the reports. “It just shows that there’s a lot of work left to do in re-establishing law and order.”

Shiites make up about 60% of Iraq’s 24 million people.