Muqtada al-Sadr executing people

Iraq at a glance reports that the Iraqi police have seized documents proving that Muqtada al-Sadr has been executing people as a result of judgments in a "tribunal" set up by him. Al-Sadr may be the first "holy man" to face trial in an Iraqi court, a prospect that doesn't exactly thrill all the other Iraqi clerics.

UPDATE: Iraq the Model reports that American humvees with loudspeakers are announcing "civilians should evacuate Najaf city as soon as possible" and that "the 4 most important clerics [are gone] from Najaf". This seems to me to indicate that the Iraqi government has made it clear that those who stay will be considered criminals and either killed or arrested. It looks like this is the end game for Moqtada al-Sadr. He had a chance to make peace and join the democratic process, but he chose war instead.

War is apparently what he now has. It won't be pretty.

UPDATE II: Hammorabi reports that al-Sadr and his emissaries are desparately seeking for any way out of the present stituation, including calling for Kofi Annan to save them! Anan won't stop the genocide in Sudan, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to see him intervening in Iraq. All part of that anti-anything-US "compassionate" crowd's agenda, you know.

Let's hope Anan tries something in Iraq. That could well seal the fate of the UN for Iraqis, since they're already up in arms about the oil for food scandal that has implicated Anan's own son, among others in the UN.