CNN: Al-Sadr supporters take over Najaf

Wanted Iraqi cleric said to be at holy shrine
Tuesday, April 6, 2004 Posted: 11:48 AM EDT (1548 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Supporters of maverick Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr controlled government, religious and security buildings in the holy city of Najaf early Tuesday evening, according to a coalition source in southern Iraq.

The source said al-Sadr's followers controlled the governor's office, police stations and the Imam Ali mosque, one of Shia Muslim's holiest shrines.

Iraqi police were negotiating to regain their stations, the source said.

The source also said al-Sadr was busing followers into Najaf from Sadr City in Baghdad and that many members of his outlawed militia, Mehdi's Army, were from surrounding provinces.
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http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/06/iraq.main/index.html

We have lost the city. It will be much harder to get it back.

Perhaps we can but together an alliance to oust them. Prove to then once and for all that this kind of aggression won't be tolerated by the international community. What, do they think it's their country and their oil?

A move from Kufa to Najaf would be an unusual move. Al-Sadr is widely unpopular in Najaf, where most Shiites support older, more moderate clerics. By contrast, his al-Mahdi Army has been in virtual control of Kufa since Sunday, holding the police station and patrolling the streets. His gunmen were out in force around the main mosque in Kufa, which has high, fortresslike walls. In a statement released earlier by his office, al-Sadr said he was moving to avoid bloodshed in the Kufa mosque. "I feared that the sanctity of a glorious and esteemed mosque would be violated by scum and evil people," he said. The Americans "will have no qualms to embark on such actions."
"I have pledged not to allow a drop of blood to be shed except my own," al-Sadr said. "I'm prepared to have my own blood shed for what is holy to me." He also denounced U.S. President George W. Bush, who said Monday that al-Sadr aimed at wrecking democracy in Iraq.
"I would like to direct my words to the father of evil, Bush," al-Sadr said. "Who is against democracy? Is it the one who calls for peaceful resistance or the one who bombs people, sheds their blood and leads them away from the leaders under feeble and dirty pretexts?" Al-Sadr, a 30-year-old cleric who frequently denounces the U.S.-led occupation in his sermons and his built a private militia, called on his followers to "defend their rights" against U.S.-led forces.

"America has shown its evil intentions, and the proud Iraqi people cannot accept it. They must defend their rights by any means they see fit," al-Sadr said in a statment released by his office.


http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAV51Y3QSD.html

I'm sure John McCain is upset by the lifting of his unofficial title.