Officials vow to push for order; al-Sadr calls for anti-U.S. protest
10:18 PM CDT on Friday, March 30, 2007
Associated Press
BAGHDAD – Suicide bombers and militiamen fought back ferociously in the seventh week of the Baghdad security crackdown, killing at least 508 people in six days.
As the deadly week drew to an end Friday, the Muslim day of rest and prayer, radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr blamed the U.S. for the violence and called for a huge anti-American demonstration April 9, the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.
Marketplaces in Baghdad, Tal Afar and Khalis stood in ruins. Cleanup crews shoveled broken glass and debris into wheelbarrows in bloodstained streets. Bomb victims in wooden coffins were hoisted atop cars and vans for the trip south for burial in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
In a sign of how deeply officials were shaken by the carnage, a top aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Sami al-Askari, pledged that the government would not relent in efforts to curb violence.
"There is a race between the government and the terrorists who are trying to make people reach the level of despair," Mr. al-Askari said. "But the government is doing its best to defeat terrorists, and it definitely will not be affected by these bombings."
The new U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, issued a statement blaming al-Qaeda in Iraq for the week's first major suicide attack, a twin truck bombing that killed 80 people and wounded 185 at markets in Tal Afar in the far northwest part of the country.
He said al-Qaeda's leaders "once again displayed their total disregard for human life, carrying out barbaric actions against innocent Iraqi citizens in an effort to re-ignite sectarian violence and to undermine recent Iraqi and coalition successes in improving security in Baghdad."
Mr. al-Sadr's statement was his first since March 16, when he urged supporters to resist U.S. forces through peaceful means. U.S. and Iraqi officials say he is in Iran, sitting out the current U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown, but aides say he has returned to Najaf.
His latest declaration was read to worshippers during Friday prayers at a mosque in Kufa, a twin-city to Najaf where Mr. al-Sadr frequently led the ritual, and in Baghdad's Sadr City Shiite enclave.
"I renew my call for the occupier to leave our land," he said. "The departure of the occupier will mean stability for Iraq, victory for Islam and peace and defeat for terrorism and infidels."
Mr. al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militiamen have generally cooperated with the crackdown, blamed the presence of U.S. forces for the rising violence, lack of services and sectarian bloodshed.
"You, oppressed people of Iraq, let the entire world hear your voice that you reject occupation, destruction and terrorism," he said in calling for the April 9 demonstration.
Source:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...q.352da37.html