Hundreds call on Sadr to quit Najaf; Iran reportedly prying with mn$

By: Ismail Zabeeh

HOLY CITY OF NAJAF, Iraq: Hundreds of Iraqis on Tuesday marched in the holy city of Najaf calling on US-wanted cleric Moqtada As-Sadr to withdraw his fighters from the holy city, amid reports Iran is pouring tens of millions of dollars into Iraq each month to inspire unrest.

According to an AFP correspondent, militiamen of As-Sadr fired into the air to break up the demonstrators who marched to the central shrine area of the holy city before dispersing peacefully.

The protest was the biggest and most public display yet of mounting local exasperation with Sadr’s militiamen presence in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. It followed a smaller one Monday. An official of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq said a bigger demonstration is planned for Friday.

US commanders say they do not want to push into the shrine area but General John Abizaid, who is in charge of US forces in the Middle East, said Monday his patience was wearing thin.

Meanwhile, reports from inside Iraq continue to suggest that Iran's government is meddling in the affairs of its neighbor, according to US officials and lawmakers with access to information about the instability there. Officials are struggling to pin down exactly what role Iran may be playing in the chaos still roiling military forces in Iraq.

Based on intelligence from inside Iran, Alireza Jafarzadeh, who ran the Washington office of Iran's exiled opposition National Council of Resistance until it was closed down last year and now president of Washington-based Strategic Policy Consulting, asserts Iran is pouring tens of millions of dollars into Iraq each month to inspire unrest, dispatching thousands of clerics to organize local insurgencies and sending resistance fighters.

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