Al Sadr And Followers Accuse Maliki Of “Systematic Campaign To Eliminate” Them
Karbala, Dec 3, (VOI) – ِA Sadrist politician accused the Iraqi government of launching what he branded as “systematic liquidation” campaign against Sadrists, or Iraqis loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, threatening civil disobedience if detention of Sadrists continued.
“Our visit to Karbala has to do with the al-Shahid al-Sadr’s office in the province and not for any government body,” Abu Firas al-Mutairi, who led Sadr’s delegation to Karbala, said during a press conference on Sunday.
Mutairi urged the Iraqi government “not to act as lenient tool in the hands of the occupation forces and to apply the law fairly on all.”
On Sunday a Sadrist source in Karbala said a delegation sent by Shiite leader al-Sadr arrived in Karbala on a fact-finding mission regarding arrests targeting Sadrists and their Mahdi Army militias.
“The delegation is comprised of Sadrist legislators and politicians,” said Sheikh Abdul-Hadi al-Muhammadawi in statements to the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI), not revealing the names of the delegation members.
The delegation, which is to discuss security and political developments in Karbala to convey a clear picture to Muqtada al-Sadr, is scheduled to meet with officials, citizens and detainees in the province, he said.
Sadr’s office strongly denounced arrests targeting his followers after the August 28, 2007 incidents of al-Ziyara al-Shaabaniya, or the mid-Shaaban visit, a holy pilgrimage for Shiite Muslims, in which hundreds of civilians were killed or wounded and government and private property set ablaze.
The incidents were followed by a large wave of arrests by the Iraqi police in Karbala.
The sacred city of Karbala witnessed bloody incidents in late August when armed men clashed with police forces and guards protecting the tombs of Imams al-Hussein and his brother al-Abbas.
Clashes renewed a day later while the city was teeming with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who were attending the al-Ziyara al-Shaabaniya to celebrate the birth anniversary of the Messiah-like Imam al-Mahdi, the 12th holiest figure for Shiite Muslims.
48 people were killed and 384 others were wounded, some of them seriously, in those clashes, according to official figures.
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The sacred city? Now there’s an oxymoron. Sacred to whom? The followers of Al-Shatain, the moon god and their evil prophet mookie the ugly one?
The hell with these mofos. If they want to kill others because they are Sunni or not aligned with dictator mookie or his puppetmasters in Iran, then arrest them or kill them all. Iraq needs peace…not mookie or his dellusional followers.
December 3rd, 2007 at 5:47 amTalk about the “pot calling the kettle black”.
Poor Mookie….doesn’t like it when the shoe is on the other hand
December 3rd, 2007 at 8:20 am