Sadr exhorts Iraqis to resist US ‘occupiers’

Radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr yesterday exhorted a boisterous crowd to resist the US “occupation” by all means, in his first speech since returning home to the holy city of Najaf.

“We still resist the occupier, by military resistance, and all the means of resistance,” Sadr said in the shrine city, where he returned last Wednesday after about four years of self-imposed exile.

According to an AFP photographer, about 20,000 people turned out to hear Sadr speak, waving a forest of Iraqi flags and pictures of the cleric.

“Iraq passed through difficult circumstances, which made everyone cry, and did not satisfy anyone except our joint enemy – America, Israel and Britain,” Sadr said.

“So say after me: ‘No, no to America!’” said Sadr, who 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.

The crowd did so, but in voices the cleric deemed to be too muted.

Sadr asked: “Are you afraid of America? Say ‘no, no to America! No, no to Israel!’”

The crowd roared back the same chant.

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 this year.

US 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 joint operations if requested by their Iraqi counterparts, under the terms of the security pact. “We listened to the speech, but heard nothing new,” David Ranz, the spokesman for the US embassy in Baghdad said of Sadr’s speech.

He declined to comment further, and the US military in Iraq referred questions to the embassy.

While he called for resistance against the US presence, Sadr also stressed that Iraqis would not be harmed by his forces.

“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.

“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.

“If the conflicts took place among brothers, let us forget this page and turn it forever, and live united in peace and security,” Sadr said in an apparent reference to sectarian violence in Iraq.

“We have to put an end to the suffering of the Iraqi people, by our unity,” he said.

Sadr also said Iraq’s new government, which was approved by parliament on December 21 and includes six ministers from his bloc, should be given a chance to perform, but must ensure that US forces withdraw.