Al-Sadr made his ultimate goal clear on Al-Jazeera a few weeks ago: "What is more important is to make society, not just the government, Islamic." That bodes ill for women and non-Muslims in areas he controls. Iraqi Mosques Blare Call To Arms; 8 Dead Overnight," from AFP (thanks to Twostellas):
BAGHDAD (AFP)--Loudspeakers at mosques in Baghdad's Shiite bastion Sadr City blared out a call to arms soon after radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr warned of a new uprising by his militia, residents said Sunday.
Iraqi security and medical officials, meanwhile, reported another eight people killed overnight in clashes between militiamen and U.S. and Iraqi forces in the embattled township, where fighting has raged since late March.
"Fight the occupiers - get them out of your homes," the late-night loudspeaker messages said, according to residents. "They (U.S.) are calling for division...we demand that the siege of Sadr City be lifted."
The messages also urged the Iraqi army "not to fight your brothers."
Sadr Saturday threatened to declare "open war" if the crackdown by Iraqi and U.S. forces against his militiamen doesn't stop.
"I am giving my last warning and my word to the Iraqi government to take the path of peace and stop violence against its own people, otherwise it will be a government of destruction," he said in a statement issued by his office in the holy city of Najaf. "If it does not stop the militias that have infiltrated the government, then we will declare a war until liberation."
Sadr also lashed out at the Iraqi government's alliance with the U.S. military.
"The occupation has made us the target of its planes, tanks, air strikes and snipers," he said. "Without our support this government would not have been formed.
"But with its alliance with the occupier it is not independent and sovereign as we would like it to be," he said....
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