When will we finally recognize Muqtada al-Sadr is the leader of an enemy force in Iraq and take him out?
Sheik al-Sadr drove in a long motorcade from Najaf to its sister city of Kufa to deliver an anti-American sermon to 6,000 chanting supporters at the main mosque. “No, no for Satan. No, no for America. No, no for the occupation. No, no for Israel,” the glowering, black-turbaned cleric chanted in a call and response with the crowd. “We demand the withdrawal of the occupation forces, or the creation of a timetable for such a withdrawal,” he said, wiping sweat from his brow with a white cloth as temperatures hovered at 113 degrees. “I call upon the Iraqi government not to extend the occupation even for a single day.”
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Later yesterday, the Mahdi Army received a blow when its Basra leader, Wissam al-Waili, 23, also known as Abu Qadir, was shot and killed along with his brother and two aides during a gunbattle with British and Iraqi troops, police and the British military said. The battle began about 4 p.m. during a raid to arrest Mr. al-Waili in Jumhoriyah, a middle-class, residential area in central Basra, police said. Mr. al-Waili and his three companions opened fire and were killed when the troops shot back, police said. Several hours later, Mahdi Army militants broke into the home of a former top Iraqi officer in Basra, set one Humvee on fire and stole another.Meanwhile, three U.S. soldiers were killed in roadside bombings in the capital and the surrounding areas, the military said yesterday. Two others were killed in explosions north of Baghdad, and a sixth soldier was hit by gunfire in Diyala province, the military said. The killings raised the American death toll for the month to at least 88 through Thursday.