Rebuilding plan for Najaf would raze al-Sadr's office

[Khephra]

By Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

Knight Ridder Newspapers



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 Shiite 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 American 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.


The proposed clearing is nearly twice the size already approved for a clear zone aimed at increasing security and allowing easier access for religious pilgrims and visitors to the shrine, said Zurufi's chief of staff, Majid Sahib Jabreen. The shrine is holy to Shiite Muslims worldwide.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9662930.htm

[NNN0LHI]

1. Here comes the bulldozers

Who else likes to do that?

Don

[bobbyboucher]

2. That should commence when?

2012?

[area51]

3. Yeah,

that sure is a coincidence that al-Sadr's office will be razed in order to have a more safe area around the shrine. </sarcasm>