He's
back: According to Muqtada al-Sadr, the man long labeled
the
'radical Shiite cleric' by U.S. media, if U.S. forces aren’t out
of
the country by this coming December, his 'Promised Day
Brigade'
would take up arms against them.
Kayhan, Islamic
Republic of Iran
Sadrists to Take
Up Arms If U.S. Remains in Iraq
If U.S.
forces remain in Iraq past the agreed-upon December 31, 2011 deadline, will the
forces of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rise again? According to this news item
from Iran's state-run Kayhan, al-Sadr's spokesperson has warned, 'If the
American troops remain in Iraq ... We will do our best to press our message and
if needed, increase the number of our fighters to kill them."
TEHRAN: The movement of Iraqi
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr says if Washington fails to honor an agreement requiring
it to withdraw all of its forces from Iraq by December 31, 2011, it would again
take up arms against U.S. forces.
"We will do our best to
refuse these troops ... by protests and by military efforts," Salah al-Obeidi,
a spokesman for the Sadr movement, told Press TV on Sunday. According to
al-Obeidi, Muqtada al-Sadr himself said, "We will not lay down our weapons
if the Americans remain in Iraq after 2011. Obeidi went on, "If the
American troops remain in Iraq ... We will do our best to press our message and
if needed, increase the number of our fighters to kill them," said.
In a statement posted on his Web
site on Saturday, Sadr said that his fighters of the "Promised Day Brigade"
would remain at the forefront of resistance to U.S. forces that remain beyond the
scheduled pullout date.
But Sadr also said that even
if U.S. troops remained, he is "freezing the activities of the Mahdi Army."
"Because of the criminal
acts that were committed - or may be committed (by people claiming to be
members of the Mahdi Army), I have decided to limit any military action to members
of the Promised Day Brigade," he said.
Sadr formed the Promised Day
Brigade in November 2008 to battle U.S. forces.
On Saturday, Iraq’s coalition
government again failed to decide on whether to ask U.S. forces to remain
beyond December - leaving the Obama Administration with an ever-shorter
timetable to complete the withdrawal or manage the political fallout if the
U.S. remains.
Iraq President Jalal Talabani,
who had called together all political blocs for the second time in recent weeks,
said he has given all parties another two weeks to discuss the issue.
Although the Iraqi
administration has informally suggested leaving something like 10,000 U.S. troops
out of the 46,000 still there, such estimates remain "guesswork," a
senior U.S. military official said.
The U.S. official, one of
several who discussed the sensitive issue on condition of anonymity, said the
Iraqis haven’t "come to a consensus on what they might need" in terms
of the operations they want the Americans to undertake. Until they do, he said,
the Americans are unable to calculate "how many troops that might require."
White House officials said
that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has told some of his own officials that
President Obama wanted to leave as many as 30,000 troops. Some U.S. officials
have concluded that Iraqis may not manage to agree on the subject before the
last U.S. troops are scheduled to leave.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
The indecision complicates an
already vexing problem for Obama.
Despite his pledge of
complete withdrawal, the administration has made clear its willingness to
continue training, air defense, intelligence and reconnaissance, as well as
joint counterterrorism missions with Iraqi forces. Fifteen U.S. troops were
killed in Iraq last month, the highest level in two years; and two more were
killed by a roadside bomb on Thursday.
The longer Iraqis take to
decide, the less time Obama has to explain the importance of preserving a
presence to the American public, and the more he risks clouding his election-year
message that he oversaw the end of the Iraq War.
Apart from politics, the
military has grown increasingly impatient. Until Obama decides otherwise, military
orders are for a complete withdrawal by the end of December.
"The point at which we
have flexibility is fast diminishing," one military official said. The
president can change his orders at any time, he said, but the later that
happens, the more logistical cost and stress there will be.
