Najaf/Baghdad, IRAQ (Agencies)
Iraq's hardline Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday lashed out at Robert Gates, saying the U.S. defense secretary will always remain his enemy because he is the occupier of Iraq.
"You have always been my enemy. And you will always be my enemy till the last drop of my blood," Sadr said in a statement.
He was reacting to comments by Gates in which he reportedly said, referring to Sadr, that those who are prepared to work peacefully "within the political process in Iraq" are not the enemies of the United States.
"Which political process do you want to involve me in when you are occupying my land," Sadr asked.
"I heard the statement of the terrorist American defense minister and I feel compelled to give a decent response to such a terrorist. I have no enemy but you. You are the occupier," Sadr said.
Sadr said he will keep resisting the U.S. presence in Iraq in a "way that we consider suitable."
The cleric also told his Mahdi Army militia, currently engaged in fierce battles with Iraqi and U.S. forces, that he will no longer accept "any armed men on the streets when they are empty of the occupier."
"If the occupier leaves the cities, we should not use our weapons. Don't raise you weapons against Iraqis as long as they don't help the occupier. I also call on the Iraqi government to back its people to rid the land of the occupier."
Sadr launched two fierce rebellions in Najaf against the U.S. military in 2004 in which many of his men were killed.
Since then the young cleric has gained a national aura that few politicians have been able to match.
He particularly holds sway over the young, impoverished people from Baghdad's eastern district of Sadr City which since Sunday has been the site of fierce battles with security forces in which around 90 people have been killed. |
 |
Sadr City blockade lifted A two-week-old blockade of Baghdad's Sadr City Shiite slum was partly lifted on Saturday despite heavy overnight fighting between gunmen and security forces that left 13 gunmen killed.
Among those killed, a U.S. military statement said, were two snipers, two "criminals" firing rocket-propelled grenades, groups firing machine guns and automatic weapons and three men placing roadside bombs.
The U.S. and Iraqi forces hit back with small arms fire, a Hellfire missile launched from an aerial drone and shells blasted from a M1A2 Abrams tank.
American and Iraqi forces have since Sunday been battling militiamen in Sadr City, bastion of the Mahdi Army fighters of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and other Shiite areas of eastern Baghdad, killing around 90 people.
Meanwhile, cars were being allowed in and out of some entrances to the Sadr City slum but some areas remained blocked off and shooting could still be heard.
The Mahdi Army has been battling Iraqi troops since March 25, when Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on militiamen in the southern city of Basra.
Around 800 people have been killed in the fighting which quickly spread from Basra to Shiite areas of Baghdad and other regions of Iraq.
The clashes subsided after Sadr pulled his fighters off the streets on March 30, but fighting erupted in greater fury a week later in Sadr City when Iraqi and U.S. forces began new operations in the sprawling township.
Sadr's movement said on Thursday it was "under siege" in Sadr City and warned that its militia was ready to take up arms again, breaking a ceasefire ordered by Sadr last August. |
