Rice: seriousness of Sadr threat unclear

Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:47am EDT
 
[-] Text [+]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday she did not know how seriously to take a threat of all-out war by Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and rebuked him for threatening violence while living abroad.

Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia have battled U.S. and Iraqi government forces, threatened on Saturday to launch an "open war until liberation" against the U.S.-backed government if it continued a month-old crackdown on his followers.

The threat from the Shi'ite cleric was followed by what the U.S. military called the heaviest fighting for weeks in his east Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City.

"He is still living in Iran. I guess it's all out war for anybody but him," Rice said of Sadr, who has not appeared in public in Iraq in nearly a year.

"His followers can go to their death and he will still be in Iran," she told reporters travelling with her on a trip to Baghdad.

The U.S. military has said Sadr has spent most of the past year in neighboring Shi'ite Iran. The cleric's aides have routinely denied this.

(Reporting by Sue Pleming; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Giles Elgood)

 
A Taliban fighter poses with weapons in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan October 30, 2009. REUTERS/Stringer
Taliban may wait out Washington's "endgame"

Washington's hint of an Afghanistan endgame in saying U.S. troops won't still be there in 2017 might help win over a war-weary public, but there is no guarantee a notoriously patient Taliban won't just wait the Americans out.  Full Article | Full Coverage 

Editor's Choice

A selection of our best photos from the past 24 hours.  Slideshow 

Most Popular on Reuters

  • Articles
  • Video
Men transport a pig on a horse cart along a highway on the outskirts of Havana November 26, 2009.  REUTERS/Desmond Boylan
Cubans fear hard times ahead, impatient for change

Cubans are bracing for hard times in 2010 as President Raul Castro slashes imports and cuts government spending to get Cuba out of crisis -- and they are growing impatient with the slow pace of economic reform.  Full Article