DAR AL ISLAM - IRAQ: U.S. TROOPS WILL GO HOME IN COFFINS

US troops 'will go home in coffins'

Baghdad/Washington: A senior ally of radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr warned on Friday that many of the planned 21,500 extra US troops en route for the war-torn nation would "go home in coffins".

The threat came amid tensions over the detention of five Iranians in a US swoop on an official building earmarked as a consulate in Arbil, which Tehran branded a breach of international law.

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The new tack will involve increased pressure on Iraq's neighbours Iran and Syria - which are accused by Washington of fomenting unrest - and tougher action to deal with militias such as Al Sadr's feared Mehdi Army.

"The American people have to prevent their sons from coming to Iraq or they may return in coffins," hit back Shaikh Abdul Razzaq Al Nadawi, a senior official in Al Sadr's movement, slamming the US troop increase.

Al Sadr is one of the fiercest opponents of the US presence in Iraq and his Mehdi Army has been branded by the Pentagon as the most dangerous faction in Iraq's bloody sectarian war.

The Mehdi Army is one of many militias alleged to have been supplied with arms by Iran.

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1) US troops 'will go home in coffins'