Najaf rebuilding plan to raze al-Sadr's office

[Barrett808]

Najaf rebuilding plan to raze al-Sadr's office
By Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
Knight Ridder Newspapers
September 15, 2004

NAJAF, Iraq - A multimillion- dollar U.S.-Iraq venture to rebuild the holy city of Najaf, damaged by war and years of neglect, will bring new clinics, new schools and new roads, Najaf's top reconstruction official said Tuesday.

One thing that won't be part of the new landscape is radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office, from which he launched the insurgency that laid siege to Najaf for five months and devastated the city center in clashes with U.S. forces last month.

Najaf Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi is seeking approval from Shiite spiritual leaders and from the prime minister's reconstruction committee to create a 131-yard-wide building-free zone around the Grand Imam Ali Shrine. Al-Sadr's office would be razed in the process.

With the street outside the shrine the site of some horrific attacks since the toppling of Saddam Hussein, increasing security around the holy compound is a major concern for Najaf authorities.

But al-Sadr advisers, already steaming over recent police raids and demonstrations against the cleric to force him out of Najaf, see it as another ploy to weaken him. Abandoning his location near the shrine would likely reduce the legitimacy of his movement, which relies heavily on his being linked to the Shiite hierarchy in Najaf. Al-Sadr's legendary father, who was slain by Saddam's regime, was part of that elite.

An al-Sadr spokesman on Tuesday dismissed Zurufi as a U.S. puppet and said al-Sadr won't budge on his say-so. Only Grand Ayatollah Ali al Husseini al-Sistani can make that decision, spokesman Hossam al-Husseini said.

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2004/09/15/a2.int.najaf.0915.html

[mom cat]

1. The US should restore electricity, medical services, water, security,

transportation,education and the economy before "enlarging the plaza outside the Shrine. The admin's priorities are so self serving. :grr:

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. How about downtown Philadelphia first?