Sadr exhorts Iraqis to resist US 'occupiers'

Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday exhorted a boisterous crowd to resist the US "occupation" by all means, in his first speech since returning to his Iraqi home city of Najaf. "We still resist the occupier, by military resistance, and all the means of resistance," Sadr said in the central Iraq shrine city, where he returned on Wednesday after about four years of self-imposed exile.
According to an AFP photographer, about 20,000 people turned out to hear Sadr speak, waving a forest of Iraqi flags and pictures of the cleric. "Iraq passed through difficult circumstances, which made everyone cry, and did not satisfy anyone except our joint enemy - America, Israel and Britain," Sadr said.
"So say after me: 'No, no to America!'" The crowd did so, but in voices the cleric deemed to be too quiet. Sadr asked: "Are you afraid of America? Say 'no, no to America! No, no to Israel!" The crowd roared back the same chant. While he called for resistance against the US presence, Sadr also stressed that Iraqis would not be harmed by his forces.
"Our hand will not touch any Iraqi... we only target the occupier, by all means of resistance. We are one people. We don't agree with some groups that carry out assassinations," Sadr said. "For the unity of Iraq, say after me: Yes, yes for Iraq! Yes, yes, for peace! Yes, yes for harmony!" The crowd yelled back the cleric's words.
"If the conflicts took place among brothers, let us forget this page and turn it forever, and live united in peace and security," Sadr said, in an apparent reference to sectarian violence in Iraq. "We have to put an end to the suffering of the Iraqi people, by our unity," he said.
Sadr also said Iraq's new government, which was approved by parliament on December 21 and includes six ministers from his bloc, should be given a chance to perform, but must ensure that US forces withdraw. "The government is new, so we should give it a chance to prove it is at the service of the people," Sadr said. But he added: "We heard a promise from the government that it will remove the occupier from the country, and we are waiting for this promise" to be fulfilled.