Thousands throng shrine amid the lack of gunfire in holy city

[Nambe]

NAJAF, Iraq (AP)

The guns are silent in Najaf (NAH'-jahf) for the first time in weeks and thousands of Iraqis have thronged the revered Imam Ali shrine, which had been the epicenter of a rebel cleric's uprising.

The change came after Iraq's top Shiite cleric made a dramatic return to the holy city and won agreement from the rebel and the government to end the fighting between his militia and U.S.-Iraqi forces.The renegade Muqtada al-Sadr (mook-TAH'-duh ehl SAH'-dur) accepted the proposal in a face-to-face meeting Thursday night with the 75-year-old Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani (ah-lee ahl sih-STAH'-nee). Hours afterward, Iraq's interim government also agreed to the deal, which includes a pledge not to try to arrest al-Sadr. His militiamen, now unarmed, remain at the shrine.Al-Sistani's peace mission almost certainly boosts his already high prestige in Iraq.

Ride Don’t Drive * * It’s Global Cool

[sandnsea]

1. How many died?

How many died with the "show of force" in Fallujah? Which we then turned back over to the Sunni's. How many died in Najaf? Just to give Sadr what he was asking for in the first place. How many have to die so Bush can act the tough guy.

[LauraK]

2. One could see this as a battle lost.

We will probably never know how many died and were handed perminant disabilities.

[Kagemusha]

3. Er not the Sunnis, the Shiites.

Just so you know.

[ze_dscherman]

4. Both

Fallujah=Sunni
Najaf=Shiite

Just for clarification.

[ze_dscherman]

6. From juancole.com

Meanwhile, the full extent of the destruction inflicted on Najaf by the US military may never be fully appreciated in the U.S. itself. How many civilians did our troops kill in their campaign in a densely populated urban area against the Sadrist street gangs? I find chilling the words of John Burns and Dexter Filkin of the New York Times

' One of the last American actions before the cease-fire went into effect involved the use of a 2,000-pound, laser-guided bomb to strike a hotel about 130 yards from the shrine's southwest wall, in an area known to American commanders as "motel row." '

http://www.juancole.com

[sandnsea]

7. Oh I know

The whole thing is just sick and our "liberal media" says not one word about it.

[Occulus]

5. Can we please just leave this to them now

and get the hell OUT of there?

That *can* rebuild their own. We just have to be willing to let them DO it...