Xinhua
Anti-U.S. cleric threatens to resume attacks if Americans stay
BAGHDAD, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Moqtada al- Sadr threatened Saturday to resume activities of Mahdi Army militia against the American troops if they stay in the country after the end of 2011.
"If the occupiers will not get out (of Iraq) by the end of 2011, we will leave the freeze of the Mahdi Army to resume the armed resistance," Salah al-Obaiedi, Sadr's representative read a statement at a rally in eastern Baghdad on the 8th anniversary of U.S. occupation for the Iraqi capital.
In 2007, Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers, the powerful Mahdi Army militia, to freeze activities against U.S. troops after clashes with Iraqi security forces and other rival Shiite militia.
Mahdi Army's ceasefire along with the U.S. troops offensives with extra troops and the uprising of Sunnis against al-Qaida, have contributed the security improvement during the past four years.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-04/09/c_13820859.htm
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