BAGHDAD, Iraq — Some of Iraq’s most important Shiite Muslim leaders called Tuesday for Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his armed followers to abandon two holy cities that they are using for sanctuary to avoid a potentially devastating U.S. attack.
The plea, which included a call for U.S. troops to remain outside the cities, represents the most public attempt to date by Iraq’s mainstream Shiite leadership to resolve a 5-week-old standoff between al-Sadr and occupation officials. It comes at a time when U.S. officials are relying increasingly on Iraqis to assume responsibility for the country’s security before sovereignty is handed them next month.
A 21-member committee of Shiite tribal, religious and political leaders hopes to broker a deal that would allow al-Sadr, who is wanted by U.S. authorities on murder charges, to leave the city of Najaf, where he has hunkered down for several weeks. Najaf is home to the shrine of Ali, Iraq’s holiest Shiite site, and recent fighting around the city between al-Sadr’s militia and U.S. forces has placed it in jeopardy.
An adviser to Iraq’s most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, said Sistani had not been invited to send a representative to the committee, which comprises senior officials from each of the most influential Shiite political parties and many of Iraq’s southern tribes. The widely revered Sistani and the young firebrand al-Sadr do not enjoy good relations, though both have demanded that the United States move more quickly to return sovereignty to Iraqis.
Members of the committee, whose makeup was announced Tuesday, said any arrangement would likely require U.S. officials to cancel the arrest warrant against al-Sadr and allow him to be taken into protective custody by a group of respected Shiite clerics in Najaf or to leave the country. Others suggested that al-Sadr be given a place in the interim government that assumes sovereignty on June 30.
But committee participants, including some Shiite members of Iraq’s U.S.-appointed Governing Council, said U.S. officials have yet to approve any agreement, although one has been drawn up.
Al-Sadr’s aides quickly dismissed the committee’s proposal as a plan influenced by an illegitimate occupation, a denunciation he has used repeatedly to whip up support among Iraqis frustrated by the continued presence of U.S. troops.
"Muqtada Sadr and his followers do not occupy the holy shrines in the holy cities," said Qais Hazaali, al-Sadr’s spokesman in Najaf. "Any calls issued by the Governing Council, or any members of the Governing Council, do not represent Iraqis. They represent the occupation forces."
The standoff in Najaf and the broader Shiite unrest are at the forefront of security concerns that occupation officials are anxious to resolve before the planned transfer of power.
Al-Sadr’s militia, known as the Mahdi Army, attacked a U.S. Army checkpoint Tuesday afternoon with rocket-propelled grenades and mortar rounds, witnesses said. Army helicopters and a tank returned fire, and witnesses said at least four attackers and one Iraqi policeman were killed.
U.S. military officials have been reluctant to enter Najaf or Karbala, another holy city that has endured fighting between U.S. troops and the Mahdi Army, for fear of harming the shrines and creating a backlash across the Middle East.
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