Free Republic

KUFA, Iraq Stepping up his challenge to Iraq's U.S.-led occupiers, an influential Shiite Muslim cleric accused coalition forces Friday of crossing all the "red lines" and vowed that his religious army would drive U.S. troops out of the holy city of An Najaf. Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr told 50,000 worshippers gathered at the main mosque in the holy Shiite city of Kufa south of Baghdad that after his "Imam Army" pushes the Americans out of An Najaf and other Iraqi cities, the men will take charge of defending those cities. Speaking after his Friday sermon, Sadr said tens of thousands had...