From Najaf

Alex Berenson reports in the New York Times (hat tip: Tony Hutchison):

As American forces here battled rebels loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr here last week, the fighting was described as fierce or block by block. It was not. Outside the huge cemetery that was the focus of the battle, most of Najaf has been quiet, though tense.

On Thursday, even as news reports described a major new offensive, Army commanders spent much of the afternoon buying and distributing food from local merchants. They were rewarded when a group of children led them to a large weapons cache, including artillery shells and explosives, and to the man who had buried the arsenal. He was detained, American commanders said.

And after costly battles earlier in the week, even the cemetery itself - an enormous warren of mausoleums, shrines and crumbling brick graves overlooked by the golden dome of the Imam Ali mosque - had settled down some by Thursday. With afternoon temperatures topping 120 degrees, neither Mr. Sadr's rebels nor American soldiers wanted to fight much during the day in the dry, dusty graveyard. Fighting peaked at dawn and dusk, when teams of guerrillas pushed up against American armored vehicles, firing grenades and helping to target mortars fired from positions in Najaf's old city.

Many soldiers said they were surprised by the bravery and ferocity of Mr. Sadr's rebels, who are outgunned and keep coming though scores of them are killed for every casualty they inflict. But for the most part, Mr. Sadr's forces in the giant L-shaped cemetery - almost three miles long and two miles wide - stayed hidden during the day, hoping to catch American soldiers in mistakes.

Rory McCarthy in Sunday's Observer:

Although Sadr had thousands of supporters around him yesterday, his remains a movement of extremists unloved by the majority of the Iraqi population, however frustrated they are with the military occupation of the past year.

As we walked back from the mosque, past the frontlines, Iraqis sat on their doorsteps watching. 'Why do you come here to see the misery in Najaf?' said one woman. 'May God take his revenge on the one who is responsible for this.' Another man ran to us shouting: 'Muqtada and his thugs are outlaws. They are criminals and they are not from Najaf.'

Many of the houses, pilgrims hotels and shops had been destroyed by the fighting. Large roadside bombs, artillery shells with wires leading from them, still lay in place every few hundred metres along the main streets.

In a large grocery shop, a few hundred yards from where the US military set up its cordon last Thursday and Friday, shop owner Raad Abdul Karim said Najaf was in the grip of 'a tragedy'.

'There is no security, no basic rights, there is fighting between the Iraqi people. It is unnatural,' he said. 'Muqtada Sadr's militia has some good people and others who are bad. But we just want to live peacefully. After three wars we have had enough. We just want somebody who can bring peace and security.'

And McCarthy again, in Saturday's Guardian:

While the crowd of Mr Sadr's supporters sang their way victoriously through the city, many of the people of Najaf were privately furious at the violence he has brought to their homes.

"Just yesterday we had fighting taking place here," said Watha Hassan, 28, a baker whose shop is close to Mr Sadr's home. "The militia were hiding behind the houses and they put civilians like shields in front of them.

"We blame Moqtada al-Sadr for this violence. Even if there were only 2% of the infrastructure left in this country they would want it destroyed."

Naji Yusuf, 74, who runs a small grocery store, was equally dismissive of the cleric. "I blame people who are poor in mind. Most people do not support Moqtada al-Sadr. His people don't care about their religion, they just do what they want."