Firefight In Najaf Group Of Armed Men

Juan Cole 10/23/2003

Firefight in Najaf

A group of armed men attacked the Najaf headquarters of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq at midnight Tues.-Weds. Four of six assailants were apprehened, and a spokseman for SCIRI said that they admitted to being Saddam loyalists. It was alleged in September that Baathists attempted to assassinate Ayatollah Hussein Bashir al-Najafi, the Pakistani cleric in Najaf, and that assailants were arrested in his living room. I suspect Baathists in the Aug. 29 car bombing at the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf. But it is also possible that the fighting in Najaf is between Shiites, and SCIRI just does not want to admit to such internecine battles for PR reasons.

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page