US troops move to disarm Iraqi firebrand cleric's guard (Moqtada Sadr) [View All]

[NNN0LHI]

Maybe they should have tried please? Don

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030903/pl_afp/iraq_militias_shiites_sadr&cid=1521&ncid=1473

NAJAF, Iraq, Sept 3 (AFP) - US troops moved to disarm the volunteer guard of anti-US firebrand Moqtada Sadr on Wednesday but were thrice rebuffed, a spokesman for the Shiite Muslim cleric told AFP.

The volunteers, armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and pistols, have been guarding Sadr's home since the assassination of prominent Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim in a car bomb massacre in this central pilgrimage city last Friday.

"Today around 3:00 pm (1100 GMT), the Americans came up to Sadr's house in three armoured cars and demanded that the special guard hand over its weapons but they refused," spokesman Qais al-Khazali told AFP.

"The Americans left and came back with Iraqi police officers who in turn demanded that the guards disarm but they too were rebuffed," he said.

"The Americans came again but, seeing a large number of Sadr supporters around the house, they left, perhaps to get reinforcements."

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