NAJAF, Iraq, Aug. 27 — Thousands of Shiites marched through the battle-scarred streets of Najaf to one of their holiest shrines today in celebration of an accord reached on Thursday to end three weeks of fighting between American forces and militiamen loyal to a rebel cleric.
Aides to the country's most powerful Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said on Thursday night that they had reached a tentative agreement to end the siege in this Shiite holy city, after a day of chaos and bloodshed here that left at least 74 Iraqis dead and more than 300 wounded.
One of Ayatollah Sistani's aides, Hamed al-Khaffaf, said that Moktada al-Sadr, the rebel cleric whose fighters have held the Imam Ali Shrine since early August, had agreed to the conditions set forth by the senior cleric to end the siege.
The proposal, which the interim Iraqi government quickly accepted, calls for the withdrawal of Mr. Sadr's fighters from Najaf and the neighboring city of Kufa, as well as a pullout of American forces and the introduction of Iraqi police officers into Najaf. The agreement would allow Mr. Sadr and his fighters to keep their guns and go free....
Since American troops toppled the Hussein government 16 months ago, Ayatollah Sistani has been careful to maintain an equivocal position on American military actions, usually condemning any use of force, by the Americans or the rebels. That left open the possibility that in Najaf, he could distance himself from the Americans by condemning the damage inflicted on the Old City by American bombs and tanks, and even leave Mr. Sadr free to claim that he acted all along to defend the shrine against American attacks.
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."
Yes, folks, "Mission Accomplished" in Najaf. Not.
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