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Radical Shiite cleric threatens to end 6-month cease-fire
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Contributor | ArmyDem |
Last Edited | ArmyDem Feb 20, 2008 09:17am |
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Category | News |
Media | Newspaper - Los Angeles Times |
News Date | Wednesday, February 20, 2008 03:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
Description | From the Associated Press
7:01 AM PST, February 20, 2008
BAGHDAD -- Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr may let a six-month cease-fire expire as soon as Saturday, a move that could send his Shiite militia fighters back out on the streets and jeopardize recent security gains that have led to a sharp decline in violence.
Iraqi police, meanwhile, held funerals today for 14 officers killed the night before as they responded to a rocket attack launched from a predominantly Shiite neighborhood against U.S. bases in the capital.
In a separate attack, three American troops were killed by a roadside bomb Tuesday night in northwestern Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Their names were not released.
Al-Sadr's Shiite Mahdi Army is among the most powerful militias in Iraq, and the cease-fire he ordered last August has been credited with helping reduce violence around Iraq by 60 percent or more in the past six months.
Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for al-Sadr in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, said that if the cleric failed to issue a statement by Saturday saying that the cease-fire was extended, "then that means the freeze is over." Al-Sadr's followers would be free to resume attacks.
On an Internet site representing al-Sadr, al-Obeidi said that al-Sadr "either will announce the extension or will stay silent and not announce anything. If stays silent, that means that the freeze is over." |
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