AL-SADR PLANS MASSIVE PROTEST ON SAME DAY PETRAEUS MEETS WITH CONGRESS

Massive Shiite protest planned in Iraq; more battles possible

By Leila Fadel McClatchy Newspapers
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/32641.html

BAGHDAD — Firebrand Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr on Thursday called for a massive demonstration against the "occupation" of Iraq on April 9, which would coincide with the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad and come just after U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker are to testify to Congress about progress in Iraq.

As Sadr called for a million people to converge on the Shiite holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq, he also warned the government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki to purge the security forces of members of the Badr Organization, the military wing of the rival Shiite Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, and of Sunni Baathists.

"Some entities in the Iraqi government are trying to put us between drawing swords and degradation," Sadr's statement said. "That is why I say as the Imam Hussein said, 'Never will we be subservient.' "

Maliki, back in Baghdad after a week of directing an Iraqi security forces offensive against Sadr's Mahdi Army militia in the southern port city of Basra, promised to "liberate" Sadr's strongholds of Sadr City and Shoala in the capital.

Abdel Kareem Khalaf, the Ministry of Interior spokesman, said from Basra that if Maliki's demand that Sadr's forces hand over their weapons to the Iraqi security forces by April 8 in exchange for cash isn't met, the weapons would be confiscated by force.

Maliki also challenged the assessment of most analysts that the Iraqi operation in Basra was a failure. "Basra was a prisoner, but it has been freed now," he said.

Maliki's and Sadr's dueling comments suggest, however, that despite Maliki's declarations of victory, a cease-fire in Basra brokered by an Iranian general and the Bush administration's claims of progress in Iraq, the violence is likely to continue.