Top cleric returns 'to rescue Najaf'

Iraq’s top Shiite Muslim cleric Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, who wields enormous influence among Shiite Iraqis, was returning to the chaotic country today to try to rescue the holy city of Najaf, his spokesman said.

Al-Sistani, 73, underwent an angioplasty, a procedure to unblock a coronary artery, on August 13 in London.

He had left Iraq on August 6, shortly after fighting broke out in Najaf, where he lives.

US and Iraqi forces have battled militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for more than two weeks there.

“His eminence Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani will arrive in beloved Iraq in a few hours and he will return to the holy city of Najaf to rescue it from its ordeal,” Hamed al-Khafaf said in Beirut.

Another al-Sistani spokesman, Al-Sayyid Murtadha Al-Kashmiri, said in London that the senior cleric “is in good health and left the hospital three or four days ago”.

He said al-Sistani planned to return to Iraq, but refused to say when or whether he already had left.

Al-Sistani’s return could play a crucial role in stabilising the situation, with Iraqi Shiites looking to his leadership amid violence that has engulfed the city.