Bremer qualifies Moqtada Sadr of outlaw and lance a warning
The American civil administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer qualified Monday the radical head Shiite Moqtada Sadr of outlaw and informed that the American army does not tolèrerait a revolt carried out by this young religious leader and his partisans.
"We are in a difficult sedentary situation. We have a group carried out by Moqtada Sadr which was placed in fact apart from the legality of the coalition and the Iraqi persons in charge ", declared Mr. Bremer at a meeting of the high Iraqi sedentary persons in charge.
"It is indeed trying to install its authority in the place of the legitimate authority. We will not tolèrerons it. We will reinstall the law and the order until the Iraqis wait ", added Mr. Bremer.
The US tanks control entries of Sadr City which will bury its deaths
The American tanks controlled Monday morning at least two of the entries of the district Shiite of Sadr City in Baghdad, after the violent ones confrontations from the day before who made at least 22 died and 85 wounded Iraqi side and seven died among the American soldiers.
A person in charge for the office of the radical leader Shiite Moqtada Sadr in this underprivileged district, Bitter Al-Husseini, declared with the AFP which "Moqtada Sadr called with the return to a state of calm but that the partisans want to fight against the American troops".
"We want peace and not the confrontation but if the Americans enter the district, there will be engagements", warned this person in charge Shiite. Thirteen American tanks blocked two entries of this district, stronghold of Moqtada Sadr, and the soldiers excavated all the cars, noted a journalist of the AFP.
In front of the office of the Sadr movement, several thousands of people were gathered, of which some of weapons, in order to take part in funerals of the victims of the fixings without precedent with the forces of the coalition. Crowd stressed: "There is not an other god that God and America is the enemy one of God".
The American forces took again position in front of the principal police station which they had left Sunday after having dislodged the partisans of Sadr of them.
A procession of about fifty children was formed in front of the office. They held up red flags.
Land-mark Al-Husseini in addition gave a report on arrests in the rows of "Armée of Mehdi ", militia of the Sadr movement, the American forces.
"Moqtada Sadr called with the return to a state of calm but that the partisans want to fight against the American troops".
If Sadr wants a state of calm, he should not have ordered his followers to commit terrorism against Americans.
All roads leading to this city of 300,000 were cut off and barricaded with tanks and concertina wire. Working through the cold and windy desert night, under a large moon, Marines set up camps for detainees and residents who might flee any fighting. Before dawn, several Marine positions were hit by mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenade fire. Bursts of automatic gunfire could be heard throughout the city.
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Good shooting to our 1500 Marines, and the two battalions of Iraqi security forces.
See also, HAL9000's "Bremer qualifies Moqtada Sadr of outlaw..."