Telegraph | News | America nervous as militant cleric's rallies attract mass supportAmerica nervous as militant cleric's rallies attract mass support
By Julian Coman in Washington and Sean Rayment in Kuwait
(Filed: 20/04/2003)
Every day, the rallies held by Battle to prevent Chalabi taking power grow bigger. Every day the American marines in the eastern Iraqi town of Kut, close to the Iranian border, become more nervous.
Mr Abbas is a militant Shia cleric with an unnervingly fine grasp of the political possibilities of post-war Iraq. Some days ago, he walked into Kut town hall and simply took it over, accompanied by hundreds of supporters, many of whom had crossed the border from Iran.
Now thousands attend his meetings, while the marines consult with rival tribal leaders on how to get him out. Yesterday's rally was bigger than ever. As he spoke, Mr Abbas voiced what are quickly becoming the standard demands: an Islamic, Shia-dominated state for Iraq, and an end to American occupation.
Similar events are occurring in towns and cities throughout the centre and east of Iraq. Shia fundamentalists, long cowed by Saddam's brutal methods of crowd control, are striving to exploit a power vacuum yet to be filled by Gen Jay Garner, America's designated civil administrator for Iraq.
>>
In Najaf, the principal seat of Shia learning, a fierce battle is going on between radical and moderate clerics. On April 10, as factionalism took hold, two rival clerics died there in pools of blood - one of them Ayatollah Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a religious moderate previously cultivated by Tony Blair.
Now another of the holy city's moderate religious leaders, Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Alo al-Sistani, refuses to leave his house. Aides say that he is making a protest against the murders. Others say that he fears for his own life.
>>
Certain options are, however, out of bounds. "There are certain guiding principles that we want the Iraqi people to acknowledge," said Maj Gen Cross. "We do not want them to hold weapons of mass destruction, we don't want them to be a threat to their neighbours."
Clerics such as Syed Abbas, who is believed to receive funding from neighbouring Iran, are hardly likely to threaten the religious regime in Teheran. In fact, he represents precisely the kind of cross-border Shi'ite alliance that Washington fears will develop as an unintended consequence of the war against Saddam.
Nerves are beginning to jangle in Washington at the prospect that "democracy" in Iraq may produce a militant religious regime which strengthens the regional hand of Iran, also part of President George W Bush's "axis of evil".
>>
"Clearly, the United States would not wish for a strengthening of militant Islam in the region," said a US government official. "But we're hopeful that won't happen."
In the Pentagon, great hope has been invested in the controversial figure of the Iraqi exile, Ahmad Chalabi. The leader of the Iraqi National Congress and commander of the Free Iraqi Forces exile army is in Baghdad, but has been greeted coolly and, on occasion, violently.
On Friday, driving through the capital, a car carrying the flag of the Iraqi National Congress and a large photograph of Mr Chalabi was sprayed with automatic gunfire. After Friday prayers at the Salati Jimad mosque, when thousands of militant supporters of the late Ayatollah Mohammed al Sadr, who was killed by Saddam in 1999, spilled onto the streets Mr Chalabi's name was openly derided.
According to Col Ted Seel, a member of US Special Forces who was air-lifted in with the Free Iraqi Forces, the Pentagon is having doubts about Mr Chalabi. "They're getting colder and colder and colder towards us," said Col Seel, who added that the group was being given no useful intelligence or American protection. As Saddam Hussein's regime crumbled, Mr Rumsfeld warned that the ensuing months could be chaotic. "Freedom is untidy," he said, "and free people are free to make mistakes."
As militant forces that consider themselves the enemies of Saddam and America gain influence across Iraq, Mr Rumsfeld's noble sentiments will be tested to the full.
By Julian Coman in Washington and Sean Rayment in Kuwait
(Filed: 20/04/2003)
Every day, the rallies held by Battle to prevent Chalabi taking power grow bigger. Every day the American marines in the eastern Iraqi town of Kut, close to the Iranian border, become more nervous.
Mr Abbas is a militant Shia cleric with an unnervingly fine grasp of the political possibilities of post-war Iraq. Some days ago, he walked into Kut town hall and simply took it over, accompanied by hundreds of supporters, many of whom had crossed the border from Iran.
Now thousands attend his meetings, while the marines consult with rival tribal leaders on how to get him out. Yesterday's rally was bigger than ever. As he spoke, Mr Abbas voiced what are quickly becoming the standard demands: an Islamic, Shia-dominated state for Iraq, and an end to American occupation.
Similar events are occurring in towns and cities throughout the centre and east of Iraq. Shia fundamentalists, long cowed by Saddam's brutal methods of crowd control, are striving to exploit a power vacuum yet to be filled by Gen Jay Garner, America's designated civil administrator for Iraq.
>>
In Najaf, the principal seat of Shia learning, a fierce battle is going on between radical and moderate clerics. On April 10, as factionalism took hold, two rival clerics died there in pools of blood - one of them Ayatollah Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a religious moderate previously cultivated by Tony Blair.
Now another of the holy city's moderate religious leaders, Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Alo al-Sistani, refuses to leave his house. Aides say that he is making a protest against the murders. Others say that he fears for his own life.
>>
Certain options are, however, out of bounds. "There are certain guiding principles that we want the Iraqi people to acknowledge," said Maj Gen Cross. "We do not want them to hold weapons of mass destruction, we don't want them to be a threat to their neighbours."
Clerics such as Syed Abbas, who is believed to receive funding from neighbouring Iran, are hardly likely to threaten the religious regime in Teheran. In fact, he represents precisely the kind of cross-border Shi'ite alliance that Washington fears will develop as an unintended consequence of the war against Saddam.
Nerves are beginning to jangle in Washington at the prospect that "democracy" in Iraq may produce a militant religious regime which strengthens the regional hand of Iran, also part of President George W Bush's "axis of evil".
>>
"Clearly, the United States would not wish for a strengthening of militant Islam in the region," said a US government official. "But we're hopeful that won't happen."
In the Pentagon, great hope has been invested in the controversial figure of the Iraqi exile, Ahmad Chalabi. The leader of the Iraqi National Congress and commander of the Free Iraqi Forces exile army is in Baghdad, but has been greeted coolly and, on occasion, violently.
On Friday, driving through the capital, a car carrying the flag of the Iraqi National Congress and a large photograph of Mr Chalabi was sprayed with automatic gunfire. After Friday prayers at the Salati Jimad mosque, when thousands of militant supporters of the late Ayatollah Mohammed al Sadr, who was killed by Saddam in 1999, spilled onto the streets Mr Chalabi's name was openly derided.
According to Col Ted Seel, a member of US Special Forces who was air-lifted in with the Free Iraqi Forces, the Pentagon is having doubts about Mr Chalabi. "They're getting colder and colder and colder towards us," said Col Seel, who added that the group was being given no useful intelligence or American protection. As Saddam Hussein's regime crumbled, Mr Rumsfeld warned that the ensuing months could be chaotic. "Freedom is untidy," he said, "and free people are free to make mistakes."
As militant forces that consider themselves the enemies of Saddam and America gain influence across Iraq, Mr Rumsfeld's noble sentiments will be tested to the full.
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