Source: Gulf Times
February 26, 2007 Author: staff
BAGHDAD: Radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr urged Iraqi security forces not to work with US troops in enforcing a new Baghdad security plan, in a message read to his supporters yesterday.
The Shia firebrand’s location has been a mystery for several weeks. Iraqi and US officials say he has decamped to Iran, a claim furiously denied by both Tehran and Sadr’s movement.
Yesterday, Shia cleric Abdulzahra al-Suweidi read a purported statement from his leader to a 1,000-strong crowd of cheering supporters in Sadr City, a bastion of Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia in east Baghdad.
“I say to the Iraqi security forces, police and army: ‘You are able to protect Iraq and the Iraqi people with your faith, your sacrifice, and your patience and your unity’,†Sadr said, according to the document.
“You don’t need the occupiers with their tanks and their planes.â€
This month, Iraqi forces and US backers have mounted a large-scale security operation in Baghdad in a bid to quell a year-long bout of vicious sectarian bloodshed that has pitched Shia death squads versus Sunni insurgents.
Since the plan was launched, Sadr’s black-clad Mahdi Army militia fighters have melted away, allowing the security forces to patrol their former strongholds, and sectarian murders have dropped off considerably.
There are persistent reports Sadr has given Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki the green light to arrest rogue elements of his organisation but that he and senior Mahdi Army commanders are lying low to avoid arrest.
Sadr’s party says publicly that it supports Maliki’s security plan, but the statement yesterday showed that the movement remains firmly opposed to the ongoing participation of tens of thousands of US troops.
“Any security plan led by the enemy occupier can do no good for Iraqis,†Sadr’s statement said, to loud acclaim and shouts of “Moqtada is a bridge to heaven†from the crowd.
“God will protect you from their evils. Make your plan an independent Iraqi plan to be victorious,†the statement said. “You have the credibility to protect Iraqis and the plan is honorable. Beware of treachery.â€
Sadr repeated his demand for a timetable for a rapid American withdrawal for Iraq and urged Sunnis and Shias to unite. “Let the shedding of Iraqi blood be forbidden,†the statement said, according Suweidi.
The clerics who appeared in Sadr City did not give the whereabouts of their champion but an official at his movement’s main office in the holy city of Najaf denied reports he was in Iran.
“I can confirm that Sayyid Moqtada al-Sadr is still in Iraq and he is aware of everything that is going on in Iraq. There is no truth in these reports,†said Bassim al-Aathari. – AFP
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