 |
| credit: Reuters |
Supporters of anti-American cleric Muqtadar al-Sadr rallied in the thousands to send a message to the remaining American forces in Iraq: do not stay beyond the established withdrawal date. The march of thousands in northeastern Baghdad's Sadr City showed the depth of the support for Muqtada's insistence on an end to US occupation despite the desires of Obama & Folks, Inc. and the Pentagon to keep some US forces stationed in Iraq. Clearly the rally which featured young men marching in military precision as well as clerics and women dressed in burkhas was meant to show that Sadrists are willing to renew armed resistance. Some participants told an
Al Jazeera reporter that they had left their rifles at home, but were willing to take up arms against the American occupiers at the moment their leader orders. The Mahdi Army fought the US backed central government and US troops to a negotiated settlement in a civil war that engulfed the nation during the occupation which has lasted eight years since the ouster of Saddam Hussein from power. Iraqi President Nuri al-Maliki has called for a "national dialogue" on the issue of inviting United States forces to remain beyond the agreed date in the status of forces agreement for complete withdrawal. Forty-five thousand US troops remain in a training and logistics role. US officials are aware of the unpopularity of US forces still in Iraq, nevertheless a US general in command called the Mahdi army an "illegal militia".
