No evidence that Iran is aiding Sadr militia: US
hindustantimes.com ^ | Friday, August 20, 2004 | Agence France-Presse
The United States has no conclusive evidence that radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has received arms from Iran, but refuses to rule out the possibility, a senior US official said.
"There are certainly those charges being made, but I guess we are hesitant to say definitively 'yes' or definitively 'no' because we just don't have conclusive evidence it's either validated or knocked down," a senior State Department official told reporters on Thursday.
For more than two weeks, Sadr's Mehdi Army has been locked in heavy fighting with US-led Iraqi government forces on a mission to crush his militia in the holy city of Najaf.
Noting the "porous border" with Iran, the US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said "it's certainly plausible" that Sadr was receiving weapons from Iran, but added that Washington could not be certain.
"I don't know if we've traced weapons in the hands of Mehdi people across the border to Iran," the official said. "There are plenty of weapons in Iraq you don't have to rely on Iran for them.
"Obviously they are getting their guns from somebody, but I don't think we are ready to say it is the Iranian government that's doing it."
On August 10, State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said the United States was concerned by suggestions that Iran is involved in deadly unrest in Iraq's Shiite holy city of Najaf and maintained it was not in Tehran's interest to foment instability in its neighbour.
But he declined to confirm Iraqi Defence Minister Hazem Shaalan's claim that militiamen loyal to Sadr were receiving weapons from Iran.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1195574/posts
Watching the Olympics on MSNBC and they just reported that Muqtada al-Sadr has agreed to remove all of his militias' weaponry from the mosque.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5685031/
"Shrine standoff appears near resolution
Al-Sadr loyalists move to hand control to moderate Shiite leader"
BUT: reading the article, as of nightfall Friday night, the handover to al-Sistani has not taken place.
..."By nightfall, al-Sadr’s fighters remained in control of the shrine, but they were no longer bringing their weapons inside the walled compound of the holy site, the reporter said.
Many armed militiamen were still circulating in the Old City district outside the shrine, but as they entered the compound they left their guns with comrades outside, then reclaimed them as they exited, the reporter said."...