Dispatches from Najaf

Photographers Thorne Anderson and Kael Alford report from both sides of the front line in Najaf. Excellent.

From Anderson inside the shrine:

Imagine the intensity of the experience of those who felt they were defending the shrine and the old city on a religious imperative. It was fascinating to spend time inside with them last week. Contrary to the misinformation of the Iraqi Interior Minister, the shrine was not being used for fighting. Fighters who came in to rest or pray left their weapons outside. Occasionally armed men would enter the shrine in order to carry wounded fighters into the makeshift triage center set up in one of the offices inside the shrine, but even those men were quickly ushered out once the wounded had been delivered and they were told to leave their weapons outside if they wished to come back inside the shrine to visit their injured friends.

From Alford trying to reach the shrine:

When we reached the last square at the edge of the old city we spotted the first hardened, front line Mehdi Army fighters. They shouted for us to stop. Just as Adnan called out a greeting, a solider stepped into the intersection and approached our car looking breathless and nervous. As he reach our car, about a dozen rounds of heavy machine gun fire unloaded into the pavement in front of our bumper. Posted by Jim at August 27, 2004 03:39 PM