Iraqi cleric's open war vow 'aimed at foreign troops' 25/04/2008 - 13:48:27
Rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said today that his threat to unleash an “open war” unless a crackdown against his Mahdi Army militia is ended applied only to foreign troops, not Iraqis.
In a sermon read by an aide during prayers in Baghdad’s militia stronghold of Sadr City, the Shiite cleric also urged Iraqi soldiers and policemen “not to support the occupiers in combating your brothers.”
The clarification came after al-Sadr issued an internet statement on Saturday giving a “final warning” to the Iraq government to halt its crackdown against the Mahdi Army or face an “open war until liberation.”
Al-Sadr – who is believed to be in Iran – called on worshippers to remain patient and united.
“If we have threatened an open war until liberation, we have meant by it a war against the occupier,” said the sermon, which was read by the mosque’s imam Sheik Hassan al-Edhari.
He also called for an end to the shedding of Iraqi blood.
“There will be no war between our Iraqi brothers, whatever their sect or ethnicity,” the message said. “Iraqi bloodshed is forbidden.”
Military operations launched by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, himself a Shiite, late last month have led to daily clashes between militia fighters and US-backed Iraqi troops, focused mainly in the sprawling district of Sadr City.
A decision by al-Sadr to lift an eight-month-old ceasefire would jeopardise recent security gains and threaten an increase of attacks against US troops.
Mahdi Army fighters engaged in fierce battles with US forces in 2004 and were blamed for waves of roadside bombings that were once the chief killer of American troops.
Mahdi militiamen also fought Iraqi security forces to a virtual standstill last month in the southern city of Basra before an Iranian-supervised truce.
Yesterday, Mr Maliki vowed that the crackdown on Shiite militias would continue.
During a meeting with Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Mr Maliki said the government’s fight against the militants had won broad political support from Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish political parties, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.
Meanwhile, the military said a US soldier was killed in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad.
The attack raised the American death toll in April to 39, the highest rate of death for troops in Iraq since September, when 65 Americans were killed. In all, at least 4,051 members of the US military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003.
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