Najafis return to their demolished homes

Iraqi municipal workers clean up the area of the Imam Ali shrine in the holy city of Najaf yesterday, a day after the three-week standoff between radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army militia and US-led Iraqi troops came to an end. The municipality of Najaf was busy trying to clean up the worst of the wreckage, while the fire department received the help of colleagues from the neighbouring cities of Karbala, Hilla, Samawa and Diwaniya. PHOTO: AFP

While few dared to pronounce the name of the firebrand Shia Muslim leader or his Mehdi Army, which has led a months-old rebellion against US-led occupation forces, most of their ire was not directed at the coalition.

"Look at what they've done to Najaf. Most of these people are not even from here. They represent maybe five percent of the population, yet 70 percent of the Old City is destroyed," said Nadem Eidan.

The 55-year-old sat in front of his charred refrigerator shop on Jadaida street. Part of the roof was collapsed and most of the facade had crumbled onto the road churned up by tank tracks.

"I don't even know why I'm sitting here. There's nothing left to steal or break in my shop," the dejected man mumbled into his white beard.

On Saturday, Najaf was nothing but a vast field of smoking ruins over a perimetre of a kilometre around the Imam Ali shrine, the epicentre of a bloody weeks-long standoff between the militia and US troops.

As the city woke up free of violence, families shuffled through the rubble and mangled iron scraps to get back to their homes for the first time in days.

Medina street, which saw some of the most fierce fighting, was engulfed in the stench of sewage water and rotting donkey carcasses.

"Why did I even come back? My home is almost untouched but my shop is destroyed, so I am unemployed and the living conditions are atrocious," said Halim Mohammed Rasool, standing in front of his gutted bakery.

"It's possible to repair it but I can't afford it. The government promised compensation but I'd be surprised if we got anything," said the 40-year-old father of seven.

The municipality of Najaf was busy trying to clean up the worst of the wreckage, while the fire department received the help of colleagues from the neighbouring cities of Karbala, Hilla, Samawa and Diwaniya.

"No matter how hard they try, Najaf will never look the same again," said Rasool's neighbour, Mohammed Masood, as he failed to stop a fire engine speeding down the street to get help removing two unexploded mortar shells inside his demolished hotel.