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Thursday, Jul 9, 2009
Salon's Phillip Robertson talks about his harrowing ordeal inside the Imam Ali shrine in war-ravaged Najaf.
Aug 19, 2004 | For three days, Salon correspondent Phillip Robertson and photographer Thorne Anderson were the only journalists inside the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, Iraq, where up to 2,500 militia men faithful to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr were locked in battle with U.S. forces. On Thursday afternoon, Robertson managed to return to Baghdad, and soon called home to tell us about his nerve-wracking experience, how he got out -- and why the widely reported peace deal never really existed.
What was it like inside the shrine?
The shrine is essentially a place of refuge. There are spontaneous demonstrations, there's lots of chanting and singing in support of Sadr, an atmosphere of religious fervor. But otherwise it felt calm inside. Outside, however, the Mahdi fighters are still armed and are still fighting. It was confusing to me that this peace deal was given an enormous amount of press when you could consistently hear explosions near the roof and the walls of the shrine. There is no peace deal or cease-fire. They're still fighting. There was a real lull for a little while, but then it picked up again yesterday. On Wednesday morning, we were in the hospital of the mosque, and there was a huge explosion. It sounded like a mortar or other explosive had hit the roof. There was a crash and then a bunch of debris on the interior courtyard, bits and pieces of mosque tile. We heard the clatter of a piece of metal and went to look. The markings on it appeared to be the serial number code from an American manufacturer. It appeared to be an American munition of some type.
How did you finally get out?
All the journalists had been bottled up inside the Sea of Najaf Hotel just outside the American cordon. Photographer Thorne Anderson and I were the only Western journalists able to go inside. But later a small group of journalists from the Christian Science Monitor, the Independent and some of the Arab news channels organized a convoy to drive in and get us. They got an informal agreement with the U.S. military not to shoot at them as they drove in. Initially there were 16 cars in the convoy, but I think only seven of them made it in. I wasn't really worried about the fighting when we were heading out in the convoy.
I was much more nervous yesterday when there was a general mobilization order inside the shrine and I thought an American attack would come. I felt like a bug in a box in there. It was a very strange feeling because there was intense psychological pressure. But the men were actually very kind to us. We were fed and protected.
Why do you think you were welcomed?
Shortly before we arrived in the area on Monday, there was an order banning journalists from being inside the exclusion zone inside Najaf, and all of the journalists were evicted from the Sea of Najaf Hotel by the Iraqi police. So for a brief interval there were no journalists there and I think that made us really attractive to the Mahdi leaders at that moment. They were saying, "You see? Who's the real enemy of democracy? What kind of freedom is this to kick all the journalists out? That's not freedom of speech." So they were glad to take us in.
When we first met with the Mahdi Army contacts inside the Kufa Mosque on Monday, they said the biggest danger in Najaf was the Iraqi police because they would shoot at anybody. I'd heard similar things from other journalists, that the Iraqi police were just driving around shooting the place up.
What was your perception of the fighting from inside the shrine?
The Mahdi Army is engaged in a constant battle with U.S. forces. I didn't see any Iraqi forces. From my two trajectories in and out of the shrine, it was clear they're fighting the Americans.
After a brief lull on Wednesday, there was continuous fighting again Thursday, though maybe not as intense as earlier in the week. And there have been a lot of air strikes. On Tuesday a building on the same corner as Muqtada al-Sadr's main office -- his office is not inside the shrine but in a corner across the street -- there was the sound of an aircraft and just a huge shattering explosion. I didn't see the blast itself because I was inside the shrine, but I ran outside and saw that a big chunk of the building was missing and several cars were on fire.
In the three days I was there, I witnessed the most horrific casualties I've ever seen in my life. I saw men carried into the infirmary in pieces. I witnessed more than 20 funerals. The U.S. forces are killing and wounding a lot of Mahdi fighters. These guys are going into a meat grinder and they're getting torn up. It was horrible to watch. It was like a machine. You would see the fighters go out and go running down the street, and then you'd hear a boom, and they would come back being carried on blood-soaked carts. I witnessed an amputation. I saw one man -- what was left of him -- taken to the hospital and pronounced dead on the scene.
Based on what you saw inside, what's your view of the reported cease-fire? Is a real truce forthcoming?
I'm not optimistic about the peace process at all. I think it's gotten overreported. Yesterday around 6 p.m. we heard two announcements over the mosque loudspeakers, an emergency mobilization order sending all fighters to their fighting positions -- this was after the news of the potential truce had been announced.
I don't get the sense the Allawi government can do much to influence Muqtada al-Sadr. But it's very odd: Sadr was reportedly in Najaf, but he wasn't around the shrine at all during the last three days.
