[COMMENT: I have been following the rise of the Thulfikar Army in some
detail. Refer to these Shi'a Pundit posts for more details:

http://shiapundit.blogspot.com/2004_04_25_shiapundit_archive.html#10832480062066\
\
3250
http://shiapundit.blogspot.com/2004_05_02_shiapundit_archive.html#10836147784514\
\
5773
http://shiapundit.blogspot.com/2004_05_02_shiapundit_archive.html#10838501800462\
\
9062
]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/8592805.htm?ERIGHTS=635780\
\
766304513318mercurynews::azizhp@hotmail.com&KRD_RM=6rnuuvsspqusonursmmmmmmmmn|Az\
\
|Y

An-Najaf group on quest to drive out Iraqi rivals

HOMEBRED MOVEMENT AGAINST SHIITE CLERIC GROWING

By Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

Knight Ridder

AN-NAJAF, Iraq -- Armed with a 9mm handgun and grit, Haidar is trying
to do what the U.S. military camped nearby hasn't done: Drive the
gunmen of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr from this holy city.

Since mid-April, Haidar and scores of other men from An-Najaf have
gathered nightly in the city's sprawling cemetery to attack members of
Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. Only a few gunmen are targeted each time to
prevent big firefights that might injure civilians, said Haidar, who
spoke with Knight Ridder on the condition that his last name not be used.

``If we capture them and they swear on the holy Koran they will leave
Najaf and never come back, we let them go,'' the 20-year-old furniture
maker said. ``If they resist, they are killed.''

The group claimed to have killed at least a half-dozen Mahdi gunmen
and chased off more than 20.

This is the first known homebred movement against Sadr, and it
illustrates the animosity toward the radical cleric within Iraq's
Shiite community, which makes up the majority of Iraq's population.
The Shiites were oppressed under Saddam Hussein's rule, and the United
States has looked to them for support in its efforts to transform Iraq.

Many Shiites in An-Najaf say only a small number of Iraqi Shiites
support Sadr. But the grand ayatollahs who guide the Shiites are
withholding support from Haidar and his band of vigilantes, fearing a
civil war among their followers.

U.S. authorities have expressed hope that the Shiite community will
take care of Sadr and have yet to condemn the vigilante attacks,
leaving the impression that they endorse them. U.S. forces have sought
to arrest the cleric and disband the Mahdi Army, but they don't want
to risk a public backlash that would follow a military incursion into
An-Najaf.

An-Najaf business leaders, some of whom Haidar and others say are
financing the resistance movement, say there's no choice but to fight
back. Sadr ``is just a child and he's running everything,'' complained
one shop owner, Mohammed Hassan, 45, who sells women's sundries in the
main bazaar. ``We haven't been able to get our goods from Baghdad
since his men took over our city. They stop the trucks at checkpoints
and steal everything.''

Like the Mahdi Army, which Sadr named after a Shiite messianic figure
to portray his fight against U.S. occupation as God-driven, the
countermilitia has adopted a religious name. The group is called Thul
Fiqar al-Battar, named after the double-edged sword carried by Grand
Imam Ali, recognized by this Muslim sect as the successor to the
Prophet Muhammad.

Haidar says the name is particularly relevant because his colleagues
are targeting a group that commandeered the holy An-Najaf shrine where
Grand Imam Ali is buried. But unlike Mahdi militiamen, who often dress
in black and carry Kalashnikovs or rocket-propelled grenade launchers,
Thul Fiqar fighters try to remain invisible.

They carry only handguns, because they can be hidden in their street
clothes. They use the common checkered keffiyeh, or Arab headdress, to
cover their faces when they go on raids. Many lack military training.

Before joining Thul Fiqar, Haidar said he had shot his 9mm handgun
only once and that was into the air to celebrate the capture of Saddam.

Yet the men have a major tactical advantage over Mahdi members, many
of whom are from nearby Al-Kufah, Baghdad and other southern towns.
Thul Fiqar fighters are hometown boys who know every inch of An-Najaf,
including the hundreds of pathways in the cemetery, which is the
largest Muslim burial ground in the world. This cemetery is where they
have concentrated their attacks against Sadr's gunmen, who go there at
night to monitor U.S. troop movements in the distance.

The immediate impact is negligible, Haidar admitted. Mahdi Army
numbers in and around An-Najaf are estimated in the thousands,
compared with the 250 claimed by the Thul Fiqar. Their quest also
comes at a high price. Four members of the new group have been killed
in firefights with the Mahdi Army, said Hashim, 27, a Thul Fiqar
leader who refused to give his last name.

``The Americans made us happy when they got rid of Saddam Hussein,''
Haidar said. ``We're happy to return the favor by getting rid of the
Mahdi Army.''