The head of the most powerful Shia militia in Iraq has threatened all-out war in a final ultimatum unless Iraqi and US forces halt operations against his fighters.
The prospect of a showdown with the al-Mahdi Army of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who launched two uprisings against US forces in 2004, comes as fears mount of a renewed campaign of bloodletting by Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda.
An upsurge in violence on these two, key fronts could unravel a raft of security gains made by the US military over the past year, at a time when more than 20,000 US troops are withdrawing from the country.
Hojatoleslam al-Sadr issued his threat to Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, last night as operations against his forces continued in the southern oil-hub of Basra, the Baghdad slum of Sadr City and elsewhere.
Filed under: Politics | Tagged: Al Sadr, militia, Politics, Shi'ite, U.S. military, ultimatum
