Rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said US forces can never defeat his Mehdi militia in a defiant speech read out to 2,000 supporters during the first weekly prayer since the end of a brutal three-week standoff with American troops. Sadr aides initially said the cleric planned to deliver the sermon from a makeshift pulpit on the street outside the Kufa mosque, which was closed last week after militants pulled out under the peace accord. But he abandoned the idea amid fears it could raise tensions. Iraqi security forces sealed off roads and fired warning shots near the city in an effort to keep the jostling crowds in check.
"Many, but not all, think that the American army is invincible, but now it's appeared only truth is invincible," Sheik Jaber al-Khafaji, said in a statement read on Sadr's behalf. "America claims to control the world through globalisation, but it couldn't do the same with the Mehdi Army."
Last week's accord that ended three weeks of fighting between US forces and Sadr militiamen in Kufa's twin city of Najaf gave the interim government control of the city. It also disentangled US forces from bitter street fighting while allowing Sadr and his militants to walk away free - and keep their guns. But Sadr interpreted the American withdrawal from Najaf's devastated Old City as a sign of US military weakness. "We should keep in mind the lessons of what happened in Najaf," the cleric said. |