In Najaf, Troops Open Coffins to Search For Guns

London Telegraph | August 24 2004

American troops search coffins as a matter of routine at holy city's sprawling cemetery, reports Toby Harnden

For the Salman family, not even the battle raging in the holy city of Najaf could prevent them burying their dead yesterday at the Wadi al-Salam cemetery, the world's biggest necropolis and hallowed ground for Shia Muslims.

An artillery shell exploded 600 yards away as Radhi Salman 25, his son Rassaq, 11, and daughter Najwa, two, were lowered into the arid ground. A gravedigger waved a white cloth at an aircraft overhead.

"Hurry up," he urged the Salmans. "The other day the Americans fired at a funeral group."

It had been too dangerous to take the bodies first to the besieged Imam Ali shrine, the golden dome of which could be seen a mile away, as custom dictates.

Relatives said that Rahdi, a farmer, and his children were killed at 4am in a village near Baghdad when an American convoy was ambushed and a Humvee machine gunner raked the street. They had been sleeping in the garden because of the heat.

The cemetery, whose Arabic name means Valley of Peace, is a vast city of a million dead Muslims. It stretches for miles to the north of Najaf and in normal times 1,000 funerals take place there every week.

"Corpse traffic", the business of bringing bodies from as far afield as India, Pakistan and Bahrain, was one of the prime sources of income in the Shia city of 600,000. But since fighting began between the Mahdi army, led by the cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and American forces there have been only a few burials daily.

The Mahdi army has used parts of the cemetery to stage attacks against the Americans. As the three Salman coffins were being taken down from van roofs, eight soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division approached nervously.

"Seen anyone with any weapons?" one asked. "The Mahdi army are just two clicks away from here." The troops kicked in the door of the funeral office and entered to search it. Abdul Kadhil, 55, a cousin of Mr Salman's father, said: "The Americans are beasts. They should respect human beings. I was happy when they came to free us from Saddam Hussein but now I see them for what they are: invaders."

Near the graveyard entrance soldiers had stopped a Toyota van with another coffin tied to the roof. Specialist Brian Phillips, 21, was ordered to open the lid.

"Oh my Jesus Christ," he exclaimed. "He's got a f****** bullet hole right through his face. It's disgusting."

He jumped down from the van and vomited in a clump of bushes.

The mother of the dead man began wailing and shouting.

"Hey," Staff Sgt Brandon George shouted. "Grandma over there is freaking out. Calm her down." He explained: "The problem is that we've found some coffins with weapons in them."

He ordered his translator to ask if any of the relatives were members of the Mahdi army. Digital photographs were taken of the body.

Some in the funeral party said the man had been killed in a family feud; others claimed he had been shot by an American helicopter. With strong suspicions that he had been a Mahdi fighter, the relatives were told to stay put for further questioning.

The soldiers, brought down from Baghdad to support the marines, said they were waiting to go home to America after eight months in Iraq.

When did they think the battle for Najaf would be over? "That's what we're all asking," said Specialist Jeremy Clark.

Back at the grave, Mr Salman's father, his dishdasha robe torn and stained with blood, wandered in a delirium. "Radhi, my son, you are my eyes, my life," he cried as in the distance a pall of smoke rose from another bomb. "What am I going to do?"

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