[Mb-civic] Najaf Officials Quit in Protest

[Michael Butler]

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    Najaf Officials Quit in Protest
    Aljazeera.Net

     Friday 13 August 2004

     Several Iraqi officials working within the interim government have
resigned in protest of the US-led assault on Najaf and Kut.

     Sixteen of Najaf's 30-member provincial council resigned in protest at
the US-led assault on the Najaf as fighting between the al-Mahdi Army loyal
to Muqtada al-Sadr and US occupation forces entered its eighth day.

     "We have decided to resign due to what has befallen Najaf and all of
Iraq from the hasty US invasion and bombardment of Najaf," the council said
in a statement to the press.

     The council's resignations came several hours after the deputy governor
of Najaf resigned in protest against the US offensive on the city.

     "I resign from my post denouncing all the US terrorist operations that
they are doing against this holy city," Jawdat Kadam Najim al-Quraishi,
deputy governor of Najaf, said on Thursday morning.

     On Thursday evening, the director of tribal affairs at the Iraqi
Interior ministry announced his resignation through Aljazeera and said he
could no longer work with the interim government in good faith given the
"carnage and barbaric aggression of the US-led forces in Najaf".

     "I am a part of this nation, I am a part of these people. My fellow
tribesmen are now fighting in Najaf and Sadr city," said Major-General Marid
Abd al-Hasan.

     Basra threat
    Meanwhile, Basra's deputy governor for administrative affairs, Hajj
Salam Awdeh al-Maliky, warned that he may openly join al-Sadr's fight if his
offer to send 1000 Iraqi police, special security and national guardsmen to
Najaf is refused by the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

     Some national guardsmen in Basra had even said they would not hesitate
to join al-Sadr's militia if al-Maliky's offer was rejected.

     Al-Maliky had warned that Basra would turn into a battlefield if US
occupation forces stormed the inner sanctum of Najaf.

     "Basra will become another Najaf," he said.

 

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