Iraq - Sadr threatens to declare 'open war' if crackdown continues

AFP via translation | April 19, 2008

[HAL9000]

via translation -

Sadr threat of an "open war" if the attacks against him are continuing

NAJAF (Iraq) - The head radical anti-American Moqtada Sadr threatened Saturday to launch "an open war" if the operations of American and Iraqi forces against his movement continued, in a statement signed by him and published in Najaf (south of Baghdad).

"I give a final warning, and I gave my word to the Iraqi government to choose the path of peace and stop the violence against its own people, if it is a government of destruction," the young religious leader.

"If it does not stop the action of militias who have infiltrated the government, we declare an open war until the liberation," warns Moqtada Sadr, whose militia, the Mahdi Army, the most powerful ' Iraq has some 60,000 combatants.

"I ask the government to require the occupant of a timetable for withdrawal as soon as possible," says Moqtada Sadr, whose fighters are engaged in deadly clashes against Iraqi and American troops in his Baghdad stronghold, Sadr City .

In this text sent to the "mujahideen well loved and faithful", he assured, "they accuse me of being in the hands of Iran, but I belong to Iraq. I belong to the will of my people. "

"The occupier has targeted with its planes, its tanks, its bombing and sniping," he adds. "Without our support, this government would never have been formed. But because of its alliance with the occupation forces, it is neither independent nor sovereign, as we would like it to be."

"Gaza was surrounded, and everyone was silent. Today, it was the turn of Sadr City and Basra, and everyone remains silent. Where are human rights? Where are the laws you take, in the name of freedom and democracy? "he says.

[Billthedrill]

Is this nasty little man Sunni or Shiite?

Shi'ite. Lebanese ancestry. His daddy was a big Shi'ite noise who may or may not have been assassinated by Saddam's boys (this being the middle east it could have been anyone but most people think Saddam). He isn't especially respected in Islamic circles - never made it out of their seminary. They used to call him "Mullah Atari" because he liked video games more than studying.

Back-channel word is that Sistani is the reason Mook hasn't taken a dirt nap yet. What his relations with Maliki are is anyone's guess but it may be that Mook isn't real sure that protection is good anymore which is why he's been so scarce in Iraq. If he's outlived his usefulness to the Iranians he's toast.

[festus]

We should have ended this game several years ago when we had this rat holed up in the mosque.