One Utah

Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr is establishing a new fighting force to battle U.S. troops in Iraq, he said in a letter read in Iraqi mosques Friday. Bill Roggio has more on The Long War Journal.

“The resistance will be exclusively conducted by only one group,” Sadr said. “This new group will be defined soon by me. The weapons will be held exclusively by this new group, and they should be pointed exclusively at the occupier. We will not stop resisting the occupation until liberation or martyrdom.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki publicly rejected key U.S. terms for a permanent occupation of Iraq. American demands include rights to 58 military bases, extraterritoriality for U.S. soldiers and civilians, control of Iraqi airspace, and the right to conduct military operations anywhere without notification. Maliki has accused the U.S. government of planning to attack Iran.

UPDATE: The Sadrist movement announced on Saturday that they will boycott the Iraqi elections. “We don’t want anybody to blame us or consider us part of this government while it is allowing the country to be under occupation,” said Liwa Smeisim, head of the Sadr movement’s political committee.

Recent related One Utah posts:
‘More abominable than the occupation’
Revealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under permanent US occupation

This entry was posted Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Disaster, Iraq, Mahdi Army, National Politics, This Blog, War. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.