Shi’ite cleric Sadr urges Iraqis to oppose US

They turned out in their thousands to welcome their hero back home.

Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has made his first public speech since returning from some four years of self-imposed exile in Iran.

Speaking in his stronghold Najaf, he urged supporters to resist all occupiers of Iraq and oppose the United States. But, from the one-time firebrand, there were signs of a more statesmanlike approach.

“Resistance, yes to resistance but it does not mean that everybody can carry a weapon,” he told the crowd. “Weapons are for those who have the right to hold weapons. We can resist in a cultural way, too.The fact that we refuse the occupier in our hearts is, in itself, a way of resisting.”

As head of the Mehdi Army militia, Sadr led uprisings against US forces. Now he wants his followers to give a chance to Iraq’s new coalition government in which his movement has assumed a powerful role.

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