One of the former heads of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council has now come out against the U.S. occupation over the fighting in Najaf. Shiite Muhammad Bahr al-Ulum said on Friday “The Americans have turned the holy city into a ghost town. They are now seen as full of hatred against Najaf and the Shia. Nothing I know of will change this.” He went on to say “I do not understand why America craves crisis. A peaceful solution to the confrontation with Muqtada could have been reached. We were hoping that Prime Minister Iyad Allawi would lead the way, but he sided with oppression.” Meanwhile in an interview with Al Jazeera, Muqtada al-Sadr lashed out at the unelected Iraqi government saying it was worse than Saddam Hussein’s regime. Sadr said “No one in his right mind could call Saddam a Muslim, but what these people are doing is far worse than what Saddam did to Iraq.”