Sadr: 'No security plan will work' as long as Iraq occupied

BAGHDAD, Iraq: The leader of Iraq's biggest Shiite militia complained Sunday that bombs "continue to explode" in Baghdad and that U.S.-led security crackdown is doomed to fail, adding that Iraqi forces should operate independently of the U.S. "occupiers."

Many Shiites believe that bombings have continued because the Shiite-led government bowed to American pressure and convinced radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to take his Mahdi Army fighters off the streets.

Al-Sadr's statement, read to his followers in Sadr City, is likely to add pressure on U.S. and Iraqi forces to show results in the nearly two-week-old crackdown.

"I'm certain, just like all oppressed Iraqis are certain, that no security plan will work and no good will come of any occupier," al-Sadr said in the statement. "Here we are, watching booby trapped cars exploding to harvest thousands of innocent lives from our beloved people in the middle of a security plan that is controlled by an occupier who does as he pleases."

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune

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