Iraq:--Radical Shiite cleric declares solidarity with Hamas [View All]

Last Update: 02/04/2004 19:54
Radical Shiite cleric declares solidarity with Hamas
By The Associated Press

KUFA, Iraq - A radical Shiite Muslim cleric has expressed solidarity with the militant Palestinian group Hamas and said that he should be considered the group's "striking arm" in Iraq.

"I have said and I repeat my expression of solidarity which Hassan Nasrallah called for to stand with Hamas," Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Friday in a reference to Nasrallah, the leader of the militant Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.

Last month, Nasrallah announced that his party would close ranks with Hamas.

"Let (Hamas) consider me their striking arm in Iraq because the fate of Iraq and Palestine is the same," al-Sadr said during a Friday prayer sermon in Kufa, his home base south of Baghdad. He did comment on what he meant by the phrase.

--snip--

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/411917.html