RADICAL Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr overnight blasted US President George W. Bush for signing a deal with Baghdad that ensures a long-term American military presence in Iraq.
"I say this to the evil Bush - leave my country," Sadr said in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
"We do not need you and your army of darkness," he said.
"We don't need your planes and tanks. We don't need your policy and your interference. We don't want your democracy and fake freedom. Get out of our land."
Sadr's salvo comes a week after the US president and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced a deal ensuring a long-term presence of US forces in the country.
Mr Bush and Mr Maliki decided to end the UN mandate for foreign troops' presence in Iraq in 2008 and replace it with a bilateral pact between the two countries for an American military presence beyond 2008.
Sadr, known for his anti-American stance, also criticised the other top Shiite parties in Iraq, Mr Maliki's Dawa and the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC).
"Where is Dawa? Where are the brothers of Badr?" he asked, referring to the SIIC militia.
"Iraqi parliament and the government ... you must demand that the occupant leave. Today the Sadrists are oppressed and by our brothers as well as the occupant," the cleric said.
Sadr's political bloc recently walked out of the governing Shiite alliance because of differences with the coalition partners.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22866754-5005961,00.html
1 comment:
Looks like it's time for the US to leave Iraq. Now that even the Iraqis know Bush is a habitual liar it's all over. Now I look for the Middle Eastern countries to support each other and end the US occupation. Poor Dick he did his best to steal oil rights. Now as for Israel they are really made their plan didn't go as the US was to make sure they got control of the land they illegally settled on in 1947. Good news for Hamas and Hezbollah and those who have their countries support. It's all over the the fat lady has sang.
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