by Jay Deshmukh
NAJAF, Iraq, Aug 18 (AFP) - Angry and tired Iraqis living in the holy city of Najaf were Wednesday keenly awaiting the final assault on radical cleric Moqtada Sadr's Shiite militiamen holed up in the revered Imam Ali shrine.
For them, it is not just a question of ending an ongoing conflict, but hope of a peaceful life in the true sense.
"It would be very, very good if the Iraqi forces assault Sadr and his men by storming the shrine to get rid of them," said a frustrated Abu Ali Asslami.
At 30, he is a blacksmith from the outskirts of the Old City where a raging battle has been dragging on between Sadr's Mehdi Army and US-backed Iraqi forces.
Earlier Wednesday, Iraq's defence minister said Iraqi forces would soon launch the last battle against Sadr and his Mehdi army.
For Asslami the news is a reason to be happy.
For someone who claims to have watched Sadr from childhood, Asslami feels the militia leader is another Saddam Hussein in the making and should be stopped soon for the benefit of the new Iraq.
"He is the second Saddam," Asslami told AFP while cutting an iron plate outside his shop under the hot sun.
"He is a dictator, has his own court and is known to have killed innocent people for smallest of reasons. If he is a true Muslim, he should step out of the shrine and fight with the Iraqi forces."
A glance around Najaf easily explains the trauma of Asslami and hundreds of others like him.
What was once a pilgrimage city for millions of Shiite Muslims worldwide, has virtually become a ghost town, especially the around the shrine.
All the residential blocks in and around the Old City are deserted, with only a few men guarding their homes after their families flocked to safer abodes since the fighting broke out.
Streets appear as if the town was in the grip of a widespread epidemic. Closed doors, broken windows, glass splinters and fallen lamposts are the only witnesses to the rapid machine gunfire that reverberates through the sky.
Amid the continuous gunfire US tanks and armoured vehicles were parked on street corners and at entrances, while rows of sandbags blocked bylanes.
"Look at the town and you'll realise what fear of death is all about," said 28-year-old Adnan Naseer, a vegetable seller guarding his own and his neighbours' homes in the Old City.
"People are really tired of this fight. We do not want him (Sadr) and his men anymore here. They are just thieves and would ruin the future of Iraq if allowed to grow."
"I have sent my family to Basra. I have to send them money regularly and I am not earning at all. There is no business. How do I survive?"
His words are punctuated by sporadic gunshots from neighbouring rooftops.
"That is a sniper of the Mehdi Army," he said.
"They are everywhere. They shoot at anyone to keep us indoors. It is getting too much. The army should just storm the shrine and flush them out," he said.
For several, Sadr's ongoing battle is simply a strategy to gain personal political mileage in the new Iraq.
"It is all for politics and nothing else, but Iraq can do without Muslims like him," said another scared and harassed resident.
"Moqtada thinks we are used to living under a central, dictatorial rule. But Saddam is gone now. We do not want a new Saddam and Moqtada is worse than Saddam as he is using the holy shrine to fight."
For some their hatred of Sadr is so pervasive that they are ready to stomach damage to the shrine caused by military action necessary to flush out the militiamen.
"We can always rebuild the shrine," said Asslami. "We trust our Iraqi forces and they would do a good job backed by the Americans. Even if there is damage to the shrine, it is okay as it can be rebuilt."
Asslami trusts that his government would not allow American soldiers to enter the shrine.
"I am sure Americans would not enter the shrine. It is not required as our army can do the job."