Sadr urges Iraqis to oppose US, but peacefully

Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr burnished his anti-U.S. credentials on Saturday by urging supporters to resist all occupiers of Iraq and oppose the United States, but not necessarily with arms.

In his first public speech since his homecoming on Wednesday after years of self-imposed exile in Iran, the one-time firebrand urged his supporters to give Iraq's new government led by Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki a chance.

"We are still fighters," said Sadr, who led two uprisings against the U.S. military after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and has called for an earlier U.S. withdrawal than the agreed deadline of the end of this year.

Pro govt stance

He said arms were for "people of weapons only", a comment that seemed to endorse the authority of the army and the police and could calm fears of a revival of the Mehdi Army.

The cleric seemed eager to shed the image of a rabble-rouser and appear statesmanlike as his movement assumed a new, powerful role in Baghdad's coalition government.

"Open the way before the new government to prove that it is for serving the people," he told thousands gathered in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf, where some had slept in the street outside his house for days.

"Our hand will not touch any Iraqi... we only target the occupier, by all means of resistance. We are one people. We don't agree with some groups that carry out assassinations," Sadr said.

Thousands of boisterous Iraqis turned out in the holy city of Najaf to hear his speech, shouting "Yes, yes for Moqtada! Yes, yes for the leader!” waving a forest of Iraqi flags and pictures of the radical cleric.

Sadr added that if the Iraqi government does not serve the people, there are ways to fix it but they must be only political. He also denounced Great Britain and Israel in addition to the U.S. as the ‘common enemies'.

"Iraq passed through difficult circumstances, which made everyone cry, and did not satisfy anyone except our joint enemy -- America, Israel and Britain."

Open the way before the new government to prove that it is for serving the people

Iraqi Shi\'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr

Against occupation by all means

"We still resist the occupier, by military resistance, and all the means of resistance," he said.

"So say after me: 'No, no to America!'" The crowd did so, but in voices the cleric deemed to be too quiet.

Sadr asked: "Are you afraid of America? Say 'no, no to America! No, no to Israel!" The crowd roared.

About 50,000 US troops remain in Iraq, but are required under a security accord between Baghdad and Washington to withdraw by the end of the year.

U.S. forces in Iraq have mainly focused on training Iraqi forces, after combat operations in the country were officially declared over from September 1, 2010.

Despite the end of combat operations, American soldiers are allowed to return fire in self-defence and take part in operations if requested by their Iraqi counterparts under the terms of a bilateral security pact.

We still resist the occupier, by military resistance, and all the means of resistance

Moqtada al-Sadr

Sadr calls for Iraqi unity

In his speech calling for resistance against the U.S. presence, Sadr stressed that other Iraqis would not be harmed by his forces.

"For the unity of Iraq, say after me: Yes, yes for Iraq! Yes, yes, for peace! Yes, yes for harmony!" The crowd yelled back the cleric's words.

The fiery, controversial Sadr gained widespread popularity among Shiites in the months after the 2003 US-led invasion, and his Mahdi Army militia later battled American and Iraqi government forces in several bloody confrontations.

He was identified by the Pentagon in 2006 as the biggest threat to stability in Iraq.

His militia became the most active and feared armed Shiite group, and was blamed by Washington for death-squad killings of thousands of Sunnis.

But in August 2008, Sadr suspended the activities of the Mahdi Army, which once numbered in the tens of thousands, after major US and Iraqi assaults on its strongholds in Baghdad and southern Iraq in the spring.

Following the ceasefire, U.S. military commanders said his action had been instrumental in helping bring about a significant decrease in the levels of violence across Iraq.

Despite only rare appearances in public, the cleric is idolized by millions of Shiites, especially in Najaf, where he has his headquarters, and in the impoverished Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City.

Sadr left Iraq at the end of 2006, according to his movement, and had reportedly been pursuing religious studies in the Iranian holy city of Qom. He returned to his home city of Najaf on Wednesday.