Sadr ends Kufa sit-in
06/04/2004 13:15  - (SA)  

Cleric holed up in mosque Iraqi cleric proud to be outlaw US brands Sadr an outlaw Shiites stage 'peaceful sit-in' 'Terrorise the enemy'

Najaf - Shiite radical cleric Moqtada Sadr, wanted by coalition forces in Iraq, said on Tuesday he had ended his sit-in at a mosque in Kufa and had travelled to the holy city of Najaf "to prevent more bloodshed".

"I have taken it upon myself to prevent more bloodshed," he said in a statement, expressing concern the "sacred site of the mosque not be violated ... by people who do not back down from anything".

Sadr said his decision to "observe a peaceful sit-in" at the mosque was taken to protest against "the aggressions committed by the infidel occupier against civilians".

Rival

An arrest warrant has been issued for Sadr for the murder of a rival cleric, Abdel Majid al-Khoei, last April, just days after the fall of president Saddam Hussein.

Even before the coalition announced a warrant was out for the defiant young leader, Sadr barricaded himself in the Kufa mosque, where centuries earlier the founder of Shiism, Imam Ali, was killed in 661 AD.

After US overseer in Iraq, Paul Bremer, declared Sadr an outlaw on Monday, thousands of his devotees gathered in the mosque's courtyard, ready to defend him to the death.

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