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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (565910)	4/16/2004 5:39:24 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 769667

Here's something you and your president should be focused on. So get off SI, go to your room and focus! ******************************************************** Sadr sends defiant message to coalition forces By Nicolas Pelham and James Drummond in Baghdad Published: April 16 2004 20:36 \| Last Updated: April 16 2004 20:36 Moqtada al-Sadr, the outlawed Shia cleric, sent a defiant message to coalition forces on Friday, refusing demands to dissolve his militia and denouncing negotiators in the Iraqi Governing Council as selling out to the west. Addressing thousands of worshippers in Kufa, Mr Sadr said: "I say that they are here to stay and will occupy us for many years and, as such, compromise will not work." He called his armed campaign "the Revolution of Imam Mahdi", the 12th Imam of Iraq's Shias. Doctors said five people were killed and 20 wounded after forces loyal to Mr Sadr were seen rushing out of town. A US military spokesman denied US forces were involved, in spite of footage of tanks near the town. Mainstream Shia politicians remain deeply suspicious of Mr Sadr's call for a Shia uprising. But they argue that America's recourse to force is turning many Shia rank-and-file against the coalition presence in Iraq and into the arms of Mr Sadr. Last weekend a US-led counter-attack repulsed Mr Sadr's militiamen from several southern cities but stopped short of pursuing them into the two holy Shia cities of Karbala and Najaf. However, US generals have continued to demand the killing or capture of Mr Sadr and distanced themselves from Iranian mediation, which had apparently received the backing of British officials in Baghdad. "There is no role for the Iranians to play middleman between us and Sadr," said Dan Senor, the coalition spokesman in Baghdad. Fighting in Falluja, America's other prime Iraqi battlefield, eased on Friday. US military and civilian negotiators held the first known direct talks since fighting erupted with leaders from the besieged city. But US jets were reported to have dropped a 2,000lb bomb to the north of the city, and there was a new upsurge in the northern city of Mosul, where eight people were killed. Mark Kimmitt, US military spokesman, said insurgents were still endangering supply lines to the capital. • A Danish businessman was the latest foreigner apparently abducted on the Baghdad-Basra highway, the Danish foreign ministry said. news.ft.com EMAIL THIS