lennart
03-04-04, 16:43
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The firebrand Shia Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr declared Friday that he would become the striking arm for Hezbollah and Hamas in Iraq, signaling his opposition to the U.S. occupation might turn violent.
An alliance between al-Sadr and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas could present a grave challenge for the United States as it prepares to hand formal political power to Iraqis on June 30.
"I will support the real Islamic unity that has been created by Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of the victorious Hezbollah, with Hamas," al-Sadr said at a Friday sermon in the southern city of Kufa. "I want them to accept me as their striking arm in Iraq, as necessity and opportunity dictate."
Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government, most of the attacks on U.S. troops have been in areas dominated by Sunni Muslims, who formed the base of Hussein's regime. The insurgency's power among Sunnis was highlighted Wednesday after the ambush of four U.S. civilian security guards in the restive Sunni city of Fallujah, when a cheering mob beat their charred bodies and hanged two of them from a bridge. The spread of anti-American violence into the Shia community, which forms about 60 percent of Iraq's 24 million people, could make the occupation untenable.
In recent months, al-Sadr had been losing popularity to more established Shia clerics, especially Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. But after U.S. soldiers closed al-Sadr's weekly newspaper on Sunday, the young cleric won new support.
Several thousand of al-Sadr's followers gathered Friday outside the Baghdad headquarters of the U.S. occupation authority to demand the paper be allowed to reopen. It was ordered closed for 60 days by Paul Bremer, Iraq's U.S. administrator, who accused the paper of inciting violence against the occupation forces.
"We don't want another Saddam!" the al-Sadr supporters chanted Friday, referring to Bremer.
"We tell the Americans they can import as many tanks as they please to Iraq," Sheik Hazem al-Araji, one of al-Sadr's aides, told the crowd. "Our martyrs will be ready to face the tanks and sacrifice their bodies in front of them."
As his popularity dipped, al-Sadr, 31, ratcheted up his anti-American rhetoric. He has called America the "Great Satan" and demanded that U.S. troops leave Iraq immediately.
Last summer, al-Sadr created a militia, called Mahdi's Army, which has been blamed for attacks on rival Shia factions. U.S. officials warned the cleric then that his supporters could not carry arms, but Iraqis say militia members carry assault rifles or handguns in the Shia slums of Baghdad and parts of southern Iraq where al-Sadr has support.
Al-Sadr has received support from some factions in religious establishment of Iran, a Shia country, and that could strengthen his ties to Hezbollah, a Shia group armed and funded by Iran. Tehran also provides support to Hamas.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-woiraq033738176apr03,0,1776494.story?coll=ny-worldnews-headlines
20.000 protesteren sluiting krant van Al-Sadr:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/8342255.htm
En nog een artikel over het Mahdi leger:
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1079420126275
An alliance between al-Sadr and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas could present a grave challenge for the United States as it prepares to hand formal political power to Iraqis on June 30.
"I will support the real Islamic unity that has been created by Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of the victorious Hezbollah, with Hamas," al-Sadr said at a Friday sermon in the southern city of Kufa. "I want them to accept me as their striking arm in Iraq, as necessity and opportunity dictate."
Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government, most of the attacks on U.S. troops have been in areas dominated by Sunni Muslims, who formed the base of Hussein's regime. The insurgency's power among Sunnis was highlighted Wednesday after the ambush of four U.S. civilian security guards in the restive Sunni city of Fallujah, when a cheering mob beat their charred bodies and hanged two of them from a bridge. The spread of anti-American violence into the Shia community, which forms about 60 percent of Iraq's 24 million people, could make the occupation untenable.
In recent months, al-Sadr had been losing popularity to more established Shia clerics, especially Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. But after U.S. soldiers closed al-Sadr's weekly newspaper on Sunday, the young cleric won new support.
Several thousand of al-Sadr's followers gathered Friday outside the Baghdad headquarters of the U.S. occupation authority to demand the paper be allowed to reopen. It was ordered closed for 60 days by Paul Bremer, Iraq's U.S. administrator, who accused the paper of inciting violence against the occupation forces.
"We don't want another Saddam!" the al-Sadr supporters chanted Friday, referring to Bremer.
"We tell the Americans they can import as many tanks as they please to Iraq," Sheik Hazem al-Araji, one of al-Sadr's aides, told the crowd. "Our martyrs will be ready to face the tanks and sacrifice their bodies in front of them."
As his popularity dipped, al-Sadr, 31, ratcheted up his anti-American rhetoric. He has called America the "Great Satan" and demanded that U.S. troops leave Iraq immediately.
Last summer, al-Sadr created a militia, called Mahdi's Army, which has been blamed for attacks on rival Shia factions. U.S. officials warned the cleric then that his supporters could not carry arms, but Iraqis say militia members carry assault rifles or handguns in the Shia slums of Baghdad and parts of southern Iraq where al-Sadr has support.
Al-Sadr has received support from some factions in religious establishment of Iran, a Shia country, and that could strengthen his ties to Hezbollah, a Shia group armed and funded by Iran. Tehran also provides support to Hamas.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-woiraq033738176apr03,0,1776494.story?coll=ny-worldnews-headlines
20.000 protesteren sluiting krant van Al-Sadr:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/8342255.htm
En nog een artikel over het Mahdi leger:
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1079420126275