Al-Sadr's men in black

Inside the Iraqi cleric's stronghold, the al Mehdi militia hunker down for a showdown with the U.S. that they believe they can -- and will -- win.

By Phillip Robertson

April 17, 2004 | AN NAJAF, Iraq -- As I write on Friday evening, An Najaf is close to being cut off from the rest of the country by coalition forces. The only available road out of town is the highway to Karbala, now that clashes have closed the usual route to Baghdad. Drivers arriving in the city this afternoon described a scene of panic when civilians caught up in the fighting near Kufa headed north for safety. Kufa is a mere 10 kilometers away, and long lines for fuel snarled traffic in An Najaf, making a short drive take hours. Drivers are hoarding gasoline, one sign of extreme anxiety.

In the late afternoon, this city became a ghost town as residents prepared themselves for a coalition assault. Civilians have gone inside, while small bands of militiamen moved quickly from one position to another, speaking of successful strikes against American Humvees. As if to signal worse times to come, a great wall of dust rose in the west and dimmed the sun into a milky disk.

I have been here for two days. On Thursday night, the militiamen of Muqtada al-Sadr roamed the streets of the desert city of An Najaf, their frenzied shouts rising above the buildings into the warm night. This place, the site of Imam Ali's tomb, is one of the holiest places in the Muslim world, and it is not a coincidence that it is also Muqtada al-Sadr's zone of exclusive control. All the militiamen, manning gates near the shrine, were wearing black clothes, black shirts, black ski masks. Black is the color of Imam Mehdi.

To get to the shrine, one must pass through al-Sadr checkpoints -- there is no other way in. Carefully made ID tags, like the ones worn by coalition staff and journalists, adorn the militiamen. Without an al Mehdi ID, fighters are not allowed to carry ammunition or pass through into highly secured areas. It is clear that they are well organized; their IDs and press conferences speak to their determination to legitimize their power across the country.

On Thursday evening we saw hundreds of well-armed men milling around the tomb of Ali, some kissing the silver railing around the crypt, circling it slowly. Any coalition attack near the shrine would echo throughout the country and lead to waves of bitter retaliation.

I have a contact who brought me here and made all the al-Sadr introductions: a young man who is part of the al Mehdi army in Baghdad. He doesn't do regular work for them or carry a gun. But he wants Muqtada al-Sadr to emerge from the struggle as the leader of an Islamic Iraq. It's as simple as that. When I ask him why, he says, "Muqtada is a good man, he is a very good man."

Just before we left for An Najaf, we met on a miserable Wednesday afternoon as I was walking past a parking garage. A voice came straight out of the cool darkness from a grate in the ground; the speaker was invisible. It was my al-Sadr contact, drinking tea underground with his friends to get out of the sun, and he had a message. We had tentatively arranged to drive to An Najaf the next morning with a safe conduct letter from the al Mehdi army in Sadr City, but I hadn't heard from him since. We confirmed the trip, and at the last minute, the translator got cold feet and didn't show up, so we left without him.

At Al Latifiya, just south of Baghdad, we drove past the remains of the convoy where two colleagues had been detained; their lives had been threatened, then they were miraculously released by insurgents. We watched while a few looters picked over the carcasses of the U.S. equipment. There were other burned vehicles on the road. Not far from the dead convoy in Latifiya, American soldiers in armored personnel carriers waited nervously while trying to fix a mechanical problem with one of their vehicles. It was a bad place for a breakdown.

We arrived in Najaf at midday; the transition from Iraqi government to al-Sadr territory happened while I slept somewhere north of Kufa and south of Al Latifiya. When we arrived at the al Mehdi checkpoints, they waved us through. At the main intersection in Najaf, a giant poster bearing Muqtada al-Sadr's portrait said, "MEN ARE CREATED FOR ME."

Next page: Coalition troops ring the town, but al-Sadr remains defiant