SADR BREAKS WITH US, CALLS FOR ATTACKS ON AMERICAN TROOPS

If he is serious it’s going to be a bloodbath on all sides. This was done for the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.

On Sunday, Iraqi flags flew from most houses and shops in Sadr City — as requested earlier in a statement from al-Sadr’s office. Drivers and motorcyclists affixed them to their vehicles. Police escorted convoys of pickup trucks overflowing with young boys waving Iraqi flags, en route to Najaf.

UPDATE: There are various interpretations in the press of Sadr’s written statement. He called on Iraqis not to kill each other and to fight the “common enemy” (the occupiers) instead. This apparently applies to both the Mahdi Army and the Iraqi Army, it remains to be seen if the emphasis is on a general uprising, or instead to quell the fighting in Diwaniyah, where the US forces are killing Mahdi Army members in combat.