NAJAF, Iraq — It's hardly the dream assignment for an American diplomat, facing daily mortar attacks while holed up in the middle of a city swarming with gunmen led by a firebrand cleric who wants the United States out of Iraq.
"If you watch the Hollywood movies you would think life in the Foreign Service is all cocktail parties and receptions," quips Phil Kosnett, burrowed inside a camp in the holy Shiite city of Najaf where Muqtada Al-Sadar and his militia have held sway for nearly two weeks.
Kosnett heads a four-person team from the Coalition Provisional Authority, Iraq's interim ruling body, which until al-Sadar's uprising steered political and economic development in the city and province.
This all crumbled April 4 when al-Sadar's militia took over Najaf, forcing Kosnett's group to seek protection at a camp manned by Spanish and El Salvadoran coalition troops. From there they have continued to report on events within the city to Baghdad, 100 miles to the north.
The only safe exit or entry to the camp is via armed convoy. Administration assistants and technicians, among a small group of Americans with Kosnett, have hauled machine gun ammunition to the camp's perimeter and fixed communications equipment under sniper fire.
And security experts aren't sure whether the camp could hold in face of a major attack. While the small, gritty El Salvadorian unit is being praised, the Spanish didn't oppose the al-Sadr take-over and aren't rated high as fighters by American officers.
"You're very courageous to be here," Col. Dana J.H. Pittard, commander of a 2,500-strong U.S. Army task force encamped around the city, told Kosnett Saturday.
Pittard and a small security force slipped into the camp to coordinate plans with Kosnett. They traveled inside four armored vehicles provided by the Spaniards.
Kosnett, 43, of Black Mountain, North Carolina, spoke of restoring the ousted provincial government and getting on with aborted development plans. But even if ongoing negotiations with al-Sadr are successful, he warned the Najaf take-over has attracted former Saddam Hussein supporters, criminals and foreign Islamic fighters that the 30-year-old cleric can't control.
Civil authority in the city has collapsed, fear and anxiety prevail and the economy, based in part on the large number of pilgrims to what some call "the Shiite Vatican," is suffering, he said.
"People are wary and anxious but anticipate the restoration of peace and order in the city. The great majority of Najaf residents were furious when al-Sadr took control of the city and they desperately want him gone," the diplomat said.
But it is unlikely the average Najaf resident would welcome U.S. troops in their city, sacred to the memory of Imam Ali, the son-in-law and cousin of Islam's prophet Mohammed. Ali is buried here in a resplendent mausoleum, and the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, the country's most powerful Shiite cleric and regarded as a moderate, has warned American troops to stay out.
Kosnett and Pittard, whose troops are poised to attack if ordered, both say harm to Najaf's holy places has to be avoided. The Imam Ali and Kufa mosques, the city's most sacred shrines, remain in the hands of al-Sadr's gunmen although they've vacated the main government office and police station.
"They may have moved out of the pizzerias but they still hold the Vatican," one of Kosnett's assistants said. "That's the biggest hostage they hold."