Those who fled Najaf, Kufa fighting want to go home

US forces and Shiite militants fought fierce battles in Najaf on Monday, with air raids near a revered shrine and exchanges of mortar fire and artillery, as the US military stepped up pressure on the insurgents to quickly hand over the holy site to Shiite religious authorities. The conflict has created an unprecedented number of displaced people, according to aid organisations. Fighting in the holy city of Najaf, about 160 km south of Baghdad has raged for more than two weeks between US forces and Mehdi Army forces loyal to anti-US cleric Moqtada Sadr. The radical cleric is wanted by Iraqi authorities in connection with the murder of a rival. The crisis in Najaf, which has spread to other Shiite communities, appeared on the verge of resolution on Friday, when insurgents agreed to turn over the shrine to representatives of Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani. But the transfer has been held up over technicalities. Representatives from both sides have said they were still working out the details. At least 10,000 families have been displaced by fighting, according to figures from families staying at nearby religious sites. The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said the number could be as high as 50,000. At least 5,000 people are staying in tents or with relatives in the holy city of Kerbala, 100 km south of Baghdad and 80 km north of Najaf, to escape the fighting, according to the ICRC. "I'm not happy with Sadr," Nidal Hassan, 40, told IRIN, as she sat on a straw mat with female relatives, the gathering completely open to all of the other estimated 350 people who had taken refuge in recent weeks. "We feel like everyone is a terrorist against us now. We want to avoid war." Hassan's house was destroyed by fighting in the city of Kufa, sending five of her family to the hospital and forcing her, her husband and two children to flee, she said. The house was caught in the crossfire between fighters and US troops, Hassan said. The ICRC has delivered 700 food parcels, 140 buckets for water and 140 jerry cans for fuel to the Imam Zaid shrine and Rasheed al-Hijeri shrine nearby, Ahmed al-Rawi, an ICRC spokesman, told IRIN. On three consecutive days, volunteers also delivered 40,000 litres of fresh water, deliveries which would continue, he said. The ICRC hires local trucks with no markings on them and volunteers don't wear any Red Cross insignia for security reasons, al-Rawi said. The ICRC office in Iraq was bombed last autumn, forcing staff to evacuate. Its current operation in Iraq is in an unmarked office known to only a few people. "We want to deliver assistance to people who are suffering," al-Rawi said. "We don't need any publicity." Zaidan Tarkhan Alwan, 75, told IRIN he got scared when US jets were dropping bombs, even though his family lives several blocks away from the zone where most of the fighting is going on in central Najaf. The Imam Zaid shrine is much safer, he said. As his wife held a child in her arms, however, Alwan complained about the lack of privacy among the large number of families jockeying for position at the shrine. Some have tried to put up blankets strung across open doorways, but the numerous children there didn't respect the separated areas, he said. "We just want peace," Alwan said. "We don't belong to either side in the fighting." Even worse, people who are sick cannot easily get medical care, now that they are away from their homes, Razak Mousa Abed, 50, told IRIN as his wife slept nearby on a thin mattress laid on the cement floor. "My wife needs medicine, but I can't get it for her," Abed said. "We came here by bus, so it's very hard for us to leave." Another woman pointed out an ugly sore on her swollen foot, saying she hurt herself when she left her house 10 days ago. "Airplanes were dropping bombs, so I was scared," Nawal Juwad, 30, told IRIN. "I have six children. I have to protect them." Kathi Khadoyer Abbas Kufa, 35, told IRIN she was also worried that the violence would mean that appointed government officials in Baghdad would decide not to hold elections, scheduled to be held in January. United Nations officials this spring said it would take eight months to prepare for a nationwide election.