Iraqi rebel Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr warned the United States today that Iraqis would hit back with unimaginable ferocity if US forces carried out a threat to kill or capture him.
k
Moqtada al-Sadr
"If I am killed or detained the Iraqi public will know how to respond with a force and severity whose extent no one will have imagined," Sadr told Lebanon's as-Safirnewspaper in an interview.
"Their threats to kill or detain me are a result of their weakness and collapse in the face of what has happened, and is happening, in Iraq," he said, adding that he did not fear death.
With Washington pledging to kill or capture the cleric after his Mehdi Army militia launched an uprising, US troops now surround the Shia holy city of Najaf, whose centre Sadr's loyalists control.
The top US general said yesterday talks were under way to avoid a bloodbath in Najaf. A delegation from Iran has been in Iraq to help mediate between US-led forces and Sadr.
A Sadr spokesman said on Wednesday the cleric had dropped conditions for entering talks with Washington, but Sadr has told some media otherwise. His opponents say his position fluctuates and he lacks credibility.
Sadr made no mention of negotiations with the United States in the comments published today but condemned the US occupation of Iraq and urged Iraqis to reject it.
"America, which purportedly crossed oceans to liberate Iraq and spread democracy, has instead of liberating it, occupied it, destroyed its infrastructure, and sown fear and panic among its citizens . . . and curbed every follower of freedom," Sadr said.
Recent weeks have been Iraq's bloodiest since Saddam Hussein was ousted a year ago. The US military has lost at least 92 troops in combat since March 31st - more than the total killed in the three-week war that toppled the former Iraqi leader.