A senior aide to Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr warned on 19 August 2004 that a U.S. assault on the Imam Ali mausoleum in Najaf would endanger American interests around the world. Sheikh Aws al-Khafagi, who heads Sadr's office in the southern city of Nasiriyah, made the statement in an Al-Jazeera interview as fighting continued near the shrine.
Al-Khafagi called any such assault "a disgrace for Muslims" and said it would trigger upheaval extending well beyond Iraq. He warned that countries acting alongside the United States in any operation against the mausoleum would face consequences globally.
Sadr's Mehdi Army was at that point encircled by U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces at the shrine complex. An Iraqi minister had separately given the militia a choice: disarm or face a military assault. Explosions and gunfire continued to echo through central Najaf as the standoff held.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in August 2004, in its own words.