by Jean-Marc Mojon
NAJAF, Iraq, Aug 27 (AFP) - Joy at the end to the US siege of Najaf's Imam Ali shrine was marred by scenes of utter destruction that thousands of Shiite worshippers and fighters left behind Friday as they poured out of the compound.
The main street leading from the shrine to central Najaf was nothing but an apocalyptic alley of crumbling structures, littered with broken glass and rubble, over half a mile (one kilometre).
In a bid to avoid heavy casualties in street combat with the Mehdi Army, US forces used their fire power to flatten their positions, leaving in its wake a ring of destruction for several hundred metres (yards) around the shrine.
Not one building escaped unscathed from the fierce battle that raged between US troops and the Mehdi Army, the militia loyal to firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr.
The sea of Shiite faithful who had marched to the shrine on Thursday and ended the siege in spectacular fashion walked back from the mausoleum Friday, weaving among unexploded bombs, charred barricades and torn water pipes.
"I am happy that the Mehdi Army repelled the Americans but the price is high for Najaf, the price is high for me," said Mehdi Hassan, as he inspected the damage done to his little convenience store in the covered market.
A bomb shot right through the ceiling of the adjacent shop and smashed into one of his walls. All his stock disappeared. "I don't know who is going to pay for this," he said.
Hundreds of shop-owners suffered the same fate in the covered market, a rebel bastion that was relentlessly pounded over the past few days.
Whole neighbourhoods have been turned into a vast expanse of smokning ruins.
The Valley of Peace cemetery also bore the scars of the battle, while the shrine itself sustained damage in several places.
Two small chunks of the main gate were torm off in exchanges of fire, the compound walls were damaged in various places and several of 7,777 gold panels on the dome covering Imam Ali's mausoleum were chipped off by sniper fire.
Sadr's office hailed the deal ending the crisis as a great victory, while the camp of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani relished its role as an influential mediator.
But the truce appeared fragile and many feared more violence was on the way between the Mehdi Army and coalition forces.
Obeying orders to put down their arms, militiamen could be seen all morning, wheeling piles of mortars, rocket launchers and ammunition on carts and carrying rifles in jute bags to caches in the Old City.
"We are hiding our weapons but are still the Mehdi Army. We are not disbanded. I am not sure we have seen the end of our problems with the Americans," said Hazem Mohammad, a fighter taking his rifle back to his home.
His comrade Ali al-Sadri predicts that the bitter confrontation between the militia and US troops will only shift to Sadr City, the Baghdad slum where the radical cleric has tens of thousands of supporters.
"You see what we did to the Americans here? This is nothing compared to awaits them in Sadr City," the defiant 19-year-old said.