- Boys who would be martyrs talk to Toby Harnden at the
Imam Ali Shrine, Najaf
-
- Struggling to lift a Kalashnikov, a 12-year-old with
the Mahdi army militia said he could do anything in battle except fly a
helicopter.
-
- "Last night I fired a rocket-propelled grenade against
a tank," he said. "The Americans are weak. They fight for money
and status and squeal like pigs when they die.
-
- "But we will kill the unbelievers because faith
is the most powerful weapon."
-
- The boy called himself Moqtada, styled after the rebel
cleric whose ranks he joined a month ago having travelled to Najaf from
the Shia slum of Sadr City in Baghdad. He said that he hopes for a glorious
death.
-
- There are many more child soldiers in the narrow alleyways
of the old city that surrounds the 11th-century Imam Ali shrine, its golden
dome marking the mausoleum of Shia Islam's martyred founder and son-in-law
of the prophet Mohammed.
-
- US armoured vehicles were seen yesterday within 400 yards
of the shrine.
-
- The American military appears to be moving closer and
closer so that a swift all-out assault can be launched.
-
- Sheikh Ahmad al-Sheibani, spokesman for Moqtada al-Sadr,
the cleric who commands the Mahdi army, yesterday held out little hope
of an imminent peaceful solution to the 18-day battle.
-
- The outcome of the siege is crucial to the success of
the fledgling government in Iraq and it had been hoped that an offer by
the rebels to hand over the keys of the mosque to Shia Islam leaders might
break the stalemate.
-
- However, the keys remain with the rebels. Apparently
a committee to ponder the matter would have to be set up before any keys
could be surrendered to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the living head of
Shia Islam in Iraq and a figure much more revered than Sadr.
-
- Sheikh Sheibani defended the use of child soldiers in
battle.
-
- "This shows that the Mahdi are a popular resistance
movement against the occupiers," he said. "The old men and the
young men are on the same field of battle. The oldest is about 60 and the
youngest perhaps 15."
-
- The open courtyard surrounding the shrine was strangely
serene yesterday, despite gunfire nearby and the thump of the odd tank
shell. Beneath the golden pillars, young men challenged reporters to arm-wrestling
contests and borrowed satellite phones so that they could call relatives.
-
- Waiters from the nearby - and empty - pilgrim hotels
brought platters of chicken and rice. A temporary hospital was stacked
with boxes of medical supplies, labelled "Italian Red Cross"
and, in Austrian, "Society Iraq Relief". It had been treating
militiamen wounded in the firefights with Iraqi and American forces. Yesterday,
however, it had only one patient, who was being treated for shrapnel wounds.
-
- But despite Sheikh Sheibani's assertion that "no
political process in Iraq can be successful without the involvement of
Moqtada al-Sadr", there were signs that not everything was going the
militant cleric's way. The number of "human shields" who had
travelled from all over Iraq to protect the shrine had dwindled from about
2,000 a week earlier to around 200.
-
- The use of 12-year-olds, armed and apparently ready for
the ranks, also suggests a shortage of seasoned fighters.
-
- There was also a sense of growing tension among the militiamen,
who had previously been almost jocular with the media but yesterday accused
some reporters of being intelligence agents.
-
- "You are spies," one veteran said. "Yesterday
you betrayed our whereabouts to the Americans."
-
- His eight-strong unit included another young boy, armed
with a Russian PKC machinegun. It was preparing an SPG 9 rocket launcher
to use against American tanks, which could be heard just outside the compound
on the main road.
-
- A wire ran from the doorway where they had gathered,
out of the street and around a concrete pillar 30 yards away that was apparently
rigged with explosives.
-
- There were also fewer fighters around than in previous
days, a sign perhaps that the American tactic of attrition was working
or that the pre-dawn bombardment of the ravaged area just outside the Old
City had exhausted the militiamen, if not the boys.
-
- "My parents encouraged me to come here," said
Malik, a boy of about 14 from the southern Shia city of Diwaniyah.
-
- "I would prefer to live and taste victory but if
not my death will be rewarded with spiritual gifts in heaven."
-
- Little Moqtada agreed. "I am young and there is
a time for playing football and enjoying myself," he said. "But
there is also a time for death."
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml= /news/2004/08/23/wirq23.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/08/23/ixworld.html
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