DAR AL ISLAM - IRAQ: THE ROTTEN TOOTHED AL SADR BACK IN IRAQ INCITING ADHERENTS TO THE "RELIGION OF HEAD CHOPPERS" TO JIHAD, JIHAD, JIHAD ! ! !

Al-Sadr Delivers Fiery Speech at Kufa Mosque
By Thomas E. Ricks and Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Staff Writers

BAGHDAD, May 25 -- Moqtada al-Sadr, the influential Shiite cleric and militia leader who went into hiding before the launch of a U.S.-Iraqi security offensive in February, made his first public appearance in months today, delivering a sermon before thousands of worshipers at a mosque in the southern city of Kufa.

After months out of public view that U.S. officials say he spent mostly in neighboring Iran, Sadr arrived at the mosque in a motorcade and rekindled his anti-American rhetoric at a time when he is trying to broaden his standing as a national leader.

"No, no for the devil. No, no for America. No, no for the occupation. No, no for Israel," the firebrand cleric chanted to a crowd estimated at around 6,000, the Associated Press reported. U.S. military commanders confirmed on Thursday that Sadr, who has long opposed the U.S. occupation and is ratcheting up pressure for a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, has returned from neighboring Iran, perhaps as recently as this week, they said.

"He's been very quiet since he's come back," said Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Fil Jr., commander of the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, which is spearheading the offensive in and around Baghdad, now in its fourth month. Sadr's aides said their leader all along has remained in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, adjacent to Kufa.

Sadr's movement is wooing Sunni leaders and purging extremists in his Mahdi Army militia in an attempt to strengthen his image as a nationalist who can lead all Iraqis at a time when antiwar sentiments are growing in the United States and Iraq's political landscape is increasingly fractured.

...


Pertinent Links:

1) Al-Sadr Delivers Fiery Speech at Kufa Mosque