Still, the clerics here would prefer to see another Najaf-based leader rise to the level of top ayatollah to safeguard Najaf's quietist tradition.
Mr Khoei's prestige has helped calm the battered Shia holy city, but on April 10th he was assassinated.Mohammad Baqer Hakim, the son of another famed Najaf ayatollah and head of the Iranian-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), has yet to reappear in his home town.
The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a political party with ties to Ayatollah Sistani, said there had been no attack, as did the son of another ayatollah in Najaf.
Mr. Rabee and his brother discussed it with the Hilla police chief, who said the convoy was an American diplomatic one from Najaf, another southern city, and also with a sympathetic American colonel, who offered small financial compensation.
Militants have said they would respond fiercely if the coalition arrests Mr. Sadr, for whom a warrant has been issued in connection with the murder of another cleric in Najaf in April 2003.
While one shadowy militia, apparently related to Mr Chalabi's INC, has been encouraged to root out Baathists in Najaf, another insurgent opposition group that took control of the town of Al Amara was reportedly ordered to step down by the CIA, under threat of American bombing.
But Mr. Shaibani, who was one of the major commanders in the Mahdi Army's August 2004 battle with American troops in Najaf, another Shiite holy city, left open the possibility that militiamen would react if provoked, saying only, "We will deal with it when it happens".
And airline officials point to long-dormant plans to build an airport in Najaf as another potential moneymaker.
Mr Sahaf said that US-British bombing killed 26 civilians in Najaf and another seven in Baghdad.
"We remember that under the British, the national assemblies were based on nominations," said Muhammad Hussein al Hakim, the son of another senior ayatollah in Najaf, Muhammad Said al Hakim.
Ali al-Najafi, the son of Grand Ayatollah Bashir al-Najafi, another Shiite cleric based in Najaf, condemned the attacks on the Shiite sites.
