Al Sadr, Hiding Like a Girl in Iran, Threatens to End Cease-Fire Over Raids on Followers

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,305598,00.html

Aide: Radical Cleric Muqtada Al Sadr Threatens to End Cease-Fire Over Raids

on Followers

Saturday, October 27, 2007

BAGHDAD - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr could end a ban on his

militia's activities because of rising anger over U.S. and Iraqi raids

against his followers, an aide said Friday amid concerns about rising

violence and clashes between rival factions in the mainly Shiite south.

Al-Sadr's call for a six-month cease-fire has been credited with a sharp

drop in the number of bullet-riddled bodies that turn up on the streets of

Iraq and are believed to be victims of Shiite death squads.

Baghdad police found three people slain execution-style and bearing signs of

torture on Friday, compared with the dozens often found on a typical day

before al-Sadr's declaration. The morgue in the southern city of Kut

received two bodies, including one pulled from the Tigris River.

Another five Iraqis were killed in attacks nationwide, including a woman who

was caught up in a suicide attack north of Baghdad while she was walking to

the market.

The U.S. military reported that an American soldier was killed and four were

wounded in southern Baghdad Thursday when their unit was hit with an

explosively formed penetrator, or EFP. The United States claims Iran

supplies Shiite militants with the weapon, which fires an armor-piercing,

fist-sized copper slug.

The U.S. welcomed al-Sadr's August cease-fire declaration but has continued

to target what it says are Iranian-backed breakaway factions of his Mahdi

Army militia, and appears to have escalated the campaign in recent weeks.

The military said U.S. paratroopers conducting combat operations Friday in

the southern Shiite city of Hillah found a cache of weapons including 27

Iranian-made 107 mm rockets and two launch systems, each capable of firing

20 rockets at once. The military has announced a series of such finds in

recent days as it seeks to bolster its claim of Iranian support for rogue

Shiite fighters. Tehran denies the allegations.

The U.S. also said this week that American forces killed at least 49 Shiite

extremists in a ground and air assault in the militia stronghold of Sadr

City. Witnesses and officials said 15 people were killed - all civilians.

Al-Sadr nonetheless renewed his appeal to uphold the cease-fire and

threatened to expel Mahdi Army members who don't in what his office called a

response to questions from supporters about whether the cease-fire still

applied in the face of the U.S. crackdown.

Al-Sadr aide Sheik Assad al-Nasseri said during a sermon in the mosque in

Kufa, 100 miles south of Baghdad, that patience with the U.S. operations was

running out and the freeze could be lifted anytime.

"It was one decision which could end in one minute and then they will be

sorry," al-Nasseri told worshippers.

He blamed U.S. and Iraqi security forces for killing civilians in the

crackdown, singling out recent military operations against militia fighters

in the mainly Shiite cities of Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, and

Karbala, 50 miles south of the capital.

"The detention campaigns against al-Sadr's people were not conducted

according to issued arrest warrants as they claim," he said. "They went so

far as to assault women and children in front of husbands, brothers and

fathers. These are shameful things. ... They are more unjust to us than the

Saddamists."

Al-Nasseri also complained that an agreement to end violence between

followers of al-Sadr and rival Shiite politician Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim had

failed to yield tangible results.

A spokesman for Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,

called on the Iraqi government to stop the rampant violence, largely blamed

on the clashing factions, that is plaguing the mainly Shiite south.

Warning that inaction could further alienate Iraqis from the political

process, Sheik Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalai said in a separate sermon in Karbala

that 200 people had been killed in the past three months in the city of

Basra alone and accused the government of failing to hold the attackers

accountable. He also decried unabated kidnapping and oil smuggling in the

south.

He urged Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki and other political leaders "to

activate a security operation and to hold lawbreakers accountable."

"It is the right of the citizen to enjoy stability and security. If these

aspirations are not met, who will guarantee that the citizens will continue

supporting the political process," al-Karbalai said.

In Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, the woman shopper was killed

when a suicide attacker detonated his explosives belt after he was unable to

get through the main gate of the headquarters of the 1920s Revolution

Brigades.

The brigades is a loose network of Saddam Hussein loyalists that recently

broke with Al Qaeda and has seen several members join forces with the U.S.

against the terror network as part of a power struggle in the volatile

Diyala province. Three other women, along with a member of the brigades,

were wounded.

Elsewhere in Diyala, a bomb exploded near a village south of the town of

Buhriz, killing a farmer. Two civilians were killed in a mortar attack near

Muqdadiyah, police said.

A roadside bomb struck a police patrol in the Daghara area north of

Diwaniyah, killing two officers and wounding three others, a police official

said.

In article <47233aac$0$26330$4c368faf@roadrunner.com>,

"Patriot Games" <Patriot@America.com> wrote:

> http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,305598,00.html

>

> Aide: Radical Cleric Muqtada Al Sadr Threatens to End Cease-Fire Over Raids

> on Followers

http://elihu.envy.nu/NeoPics/Sounds/assassination.mp3

--

NeoLibertarian

"The government's view of the economy could be summed

up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it

keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving,

subsidize it."

---Ronald Reagan

Patriot Games wrote:

> http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,305598,00.html

>

> Aide: Radical Cleric Muqtada Al Sadr Threatens to End Cease-Fire

> Over Raids on Followers

> Saturday, October 27, 2007

>

> BAGHDAD - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr could end a ban on

> his militia's activities because of rising anger over U.S. and Iraqi

> raids against his followers, an aide said Friday amid concerns about

> rising violence and clashes between rival factions in the mainly

> Shiite south.

>

This Al Sadr can't be too bright to begin with if he's cooperating

with occupation forces. You would think that someone in a leadership

would know about the divide-and-conquer-propaganda tactics that the

US prefers.

"nobody" <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote in message

news:13i6tgt40roum67@corp.supernews.com...

> Patriot Games wrote:

>> http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,305598,00.html

>> Aide: Radical Cleric Muqtada Al Sadr Threatens to End Cease-Fire

>> Over Raids on Followers

>> Saturday, October 27, 2007

>> BAGHDAD - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr could end a ban on

>> his militia's activities because of rising anger over U.S. and Iraqi

>> raids against his followers, an aide said Friday amid concerns about

>> rising violence and clashes between rival factions in the mainly

>> Shiite south.

> This Al Sadr can't be too bright to begin with if he's cooperating

> with occupation forces. You would think that someone in a leadership

> would know about the divide-and-conquer-propaganda tactics that the

> US prefers.

Its not an occupation but you're right, he can't be too smart.

All he has to do is tell everybody to relax and take a 6-month vacation from

the insurgency. Then we leave, then he has the place all to himself.

"nobody" <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote in message

news:13i6tgt40roum67@corp.supernews.com...

> Patriot Games wrote:

>> http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,305598,00.html

>> Aide: Radical Cleric Muqtada Al Sadr Threatens to End Cease-Fire

>> Over Raids on Followers

>> Saturday, October 27, 2007

>> BAGHDAD - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr could end a ban on

>> his militia's activities because of rising anger over U.S. and Iraqi

>> raids against his followers, an aide said Friday amid concerns about

>> rising violence and clashes between rival factions in the mainly

>> Shiite south.

> This Al Sadr can't be too bright to begin with if he's cooperating

> with occupation forces. You would think that someone in a leadership

> would know about the divide-and-conquer-propaganda tactics that the

> US prefers.

Its not an occupation but you're right, he can't be too smart.

All he has to do is tell everybody to relax and take a 6-month vacation from

the insurgency. Then we leave, then he has the place all to himself.