US blamed by Arab media for shrine violence

IRAQ: Arab media are generally blaming the US military for the ongoing violence near the Mausoleum of Ali, the world's most important Shia shrine.

A report in yesterday's New York Times revealing that US marines transformed a skirmish with fighters of the Shia Mahdi army into a protracted battle for the mosque was carried by the Arab world's major satellite channels, al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya.

As far as the Arabs are concerned, this report confirmed the contention made by the radical Shia cleric, Mr Moqtada al- Sadr, and his aides that US troops started the latest round by approaching his residence in a forbidden zone in the old city of Najaf.

These satellite channels also widely reported the statement by the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, that it "is unlikely" that US forces would storm the shrine.

He said this highly sensitive task would be left to Iraqi troops and civil defence units, but Arab commentators expressed some doubt that Iraqi soldiers would be prepared to stage an all-out offensive against their brethren in this holy site.

The editor of the Daily Star, Rami Khouri, referred to the "two central characters in the Najaf battle", Mr al-Sadr and the Iraqi Prime Minister, Dr Ayad Allawi, as "direct or indirect creations of American policy in the region".

Mr al-Sadr, an undistinguished young descendant of highly respected religious leaders, became a political heavyweight "only because faulty American policies in Iraq have elevated him and his movement to this position", Khouri wrote.

Dr Allawi, he pointed out, "was supported by the US government and the CIA when he defected from the Baathist regime".

The showdown between the two could decide whether Iraq evolves peacefully into a democracy or is projected by violence into autocracy, according to Khouri.

Abdulwahab Badrakhan, writing in the pan-Arab daily al- Hayat, said that Mr al-Sadr was a symbol of the Iraqi struggle against the US occupation but had not become a "national leader" uniting all Iraqis. Instead, he had split the Shia community, 60 per cent of the populace.

However, he also demonstrated that the interim government headed by Dr Allawi "cannot claim any effectiveness outside the Green Zone [which houses the US embassy and the ministers\] because American forces represent its \ reach" beyond this zone.

Beirut's mass circulation al- Nahar called the decision of the US occupation forces and the Iraqi interim government to seek a military solution to its problems with MR al-Sadr in Najaf "a great conspiracy".

The Iraqi daily, al-Bayan, said: "The government's announcement to suspend negotiations for a political solution to the crisis in Najaf and to revert to the military option was a setback to Iraqis' hopes and aspirations to see an end to the horrible, bloody scene."

Baghdad's al-Adalah advised the Iraqi government to "back dialogue to contain the crisis and drive the Sadr trend towards the political process . . . This trend should understand that its own interests, the interests of the Iraqi people and of Najaf are in joining the political process, even as the opposition."

Jordan's al-Dustour called upon "the wise men of Muslim nations, the Arab League and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to move fast" and stop a bloodbath in Najaf, "the effect of which will not be limited to Iraq but also the outside world."

Al-Bayan, a daily in the United Arab Emirates, condemned "the occupation forces" for violating the sanctity of Najaf.