A follower of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr joins a protest against
the closure of the newspaper Al Hawza in front of the headquarters of
the U.S.-led administration in Baghdad, April 2, 2004.
Photo by Ceerwan Aziz/Reuters
Posted on 04/04/2004 9:13:25 PM PDT by Pikamax
Monday, April 05, 2004 Al-Sadr calls upon followers to 'terrorize' the enemy Muqty is playing on his old dirty tricks again, only this time he has gone too far. Following last Friday's prayer sermon, when he announced that he would be a 'striking hand' in Iraq for Hizbollah and Hamas whenever they need, and issued a veiled warning to Kurds to stop assisting the occupiers, his followers in Kufa ran amok killing an Iraqi IP colonel and after that attacked Salvadorian and Spanish troops. Spanish forces retorted by arresting Sayyid Mustafa Al-Ya'qubi, an aide of Muqtada and head of Sadr's office in Najaf. Meanwhile, in a display of power and defiance, Al-Sadr organised a military parade on the streets of Al-Thawra district (Sadr city), a Shi'ite stronghold, in Baghdad on Saturday where thousands of Jaish Al-Mahdi (Al-Mahdi army) militiamen in black marched along with mullahs to the horror of Iraqis who watched on tv, bringing back nightmares of Fedayeen parades under Saddam. American and Israeli flags were burnt at the parade, and large posters of Muqtada and his father Mohammed Sadiq Al-Sadr (assasinated by Mukhabarat in 1999) were carried by the demonstrators. One of the mullahs at the parade stated that "this is to show our power to the world. This army is a striking force and a time bomb that can go off any moment at the time and place our leader deems necessary". Later that day, Sadr followers cut off roads leading to the entrance of the Convention center near the Green Zone, set fire in tires, and prevented vehicles from crossing over Jumhuriya bridge. While they were at it, they attacked Video CD stores and gaming shops in Bab Al-Sharji accusing them of selling porn movies.
Since Al-Sadr's weekly newspaper Al-Hawza was closed about a week ago for inciting violence against the coalition, there have been daily demonstrations near the Green Zone by Sadr supporters demanding re-opening the paper and against the national reconciliation conferences initiated by Kurdish leader Mas'ud Barzani, current head of the GC. I passed through one such demonstration last Wednesday with Omar and AYS at Tahrir square and it looked dangerous, they were armed with pistols and AK-47's.
Anyway, last thing we heard was that Muqtada Al-Sadr's residence in Najaf was surrounded by coalition troops and that his followers clashed with Spanish troops in Kufa, 21 of them killed and 120 wounded. IP stations in Kufa were attacked, and there was news of fighting in Sadun street and Al-Thawra in Baghdad. Last word from Muqty was that he asked his followers to stop demonstrating and to resort to 'other methods' since demonstrations aren't working. Al-Jazeera is having difficulties concealing their excitement and they have already coined this as the 'start of the Shia resistance in Iraq'.
Iraqis know very well who those 'pious' people are. They are gangsters, rapists, murderers, thieves, kidnappers, looters, and criminals. They are only using religion as cover. I can't even dream of what would happen if those people were left to make trouble on our streets that way without punishment. I believe that it's now time for Al-Sadr to experience a very bad accident soon. We will be sorry for him I assure you, "Oh poor fellow, what a terrible misfortune, what a great loss" we would say to each other knowingly. It's scenes like these that make me sometimes wonder to myself if Saddam wasn't justified in assassinating all those clerics. Get that new Mukhabarat working.
# posted by zeyad : 4/5/2004 02:43:12 AM
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A follower of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr joins a protest against
the closure of the newspaper Al Hawza in front of the headquarters of
the U.S.-led administration in Baghdad, April 2, 2004.
Photo by Ceerwan Aziz/Reuters
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