Sadr, firebrand Iraqi cleric, issues threats if US stays on in his country

The firebrand Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has threatened to unleash militia forces if US forces stay on in Iraq, Reuters reported on Saturday.

Hundreds of Mr. al-Sadr’s followers took to the streets in Baghdad on Saturday and desecrated US flags while vowing to resist US troops if they extended their stay beyond the mandated period of December 31, 2011.

“I am ready to fight an American again, and I am ready to die for Iraq,” Haider al-Bahadili, a 33-year-old Mehdi Army member said at Saturday’s demonstration in western Baghdad’s Shula district. “Decisions of Muqtada are orders. We must follow them.”

According to Reuters, it was the second major demonstration by Mr. al-Sadr’s followers after the cleric issued a warning on April 9 in which he said he would unleash his Mehdi Army militia if US troops did not leave Iraq by December 31. More than 5,000 people marched in the streets of Basra, Iraq's southern oil hub, on Thursday, in protest against the United States.

There are fewer than 50,000 American troops in Iraq, down from more than 170,000 following the invasion in 2003. In 2008, Iraq and the US signed an agreement that would see a complete withdrawal of American forces by December 31, 2011.

In related news, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq has pledged that his government will not ask US troops to extend their departure, the Associated French Press reported his office as saying on Saturday.

News of the US combat forces withdrawing from Iraq has elicited different reactions within the country.

The political party Al-Iraqiya List, headed by Iyad Allawi, initiated a committee last week to pursue a referendum in which Iraqis will be allowed to decide whether US forces should stay in Iraq or not, al-Sumaria TV reported. They cite the prime minister’s alleged indecisiveness on the issue as the reason behind wanting to hold the referendum.

Some Iraqis fear that al-Qaeda could escalate attacks against the Iraqi government in the wake of a US withdrawal.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the House of Representatives’ Armed Services Committee in February that Iraq would face sizeable “problems” after the withdrawal.

“There is certainly, on our part, an interest in having an additional presence” above levels set by a 2008 accord, he said.

(Dina Al-Shibeeb of Al Arabiya