IRAQ: Smoke visible after blast hits Baghdad "Green Zone", Iraq's Sadr threatens "civil revolt".

Record ID: 352627

  • Title: IRAQ: Smoke visible after blast hits Baghdad "Green Zone", Iraq's Sadr threatens "civil revolt".
  • Date: 25th March 2008
  • Summary: (BN10) MAHMUDIYA, IRAQ (MARCH 25, 2008) (REUTERS- ACCESS ALL) EMPTY STREET IN MAHMUDIYA TOWN LOCKED DOOR OF SCHOOL PEOPLE GATHERING OUTSIDE SADR OFFICE IN THE TOWN U.S. HUMVEES SEALING OFF AREA/ DEMONSTRATORS IN THE BACKGROUND DEMONSTRATORS CARRYING BANNERS/ CHANTING SLOGANS U.S. SOLDIERS NEAR THEIR VEHICLES/ DEMONSTRATORS VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS CARRYING FLAGS/ CHANTING
  • Embargoed: 9th April 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVA9TTXUC47056C5FJP497IQ2KL
  • Story Text: Smoke was visible over Baghdad's "Green Zone"
    government and diplomatic compound on Tuesday (March 25) after a blast apparently caused by a rocket or mortar, Reuters witnesses said.
    The blast around 3:00 p.m. (1200 GMT) followed a series of blasts about an hour earlier.
    Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on Iraqis to stage sit-ins and threatened a countrywide "civil revolt" if attacks by U.S. and Iraqi security forces continue against his followers.
    He also threatened a "third step", but said it was too early to announce what that would be.

    "We will distribute olive branches and holy books of the Quran to Iraqi policemen and soldiers and then speaking to the social, political figures, and tribal leaders to intervene. Now, the offices of al-Sadr, (Shi'ite and Sunni) mosques call for staging peaceful sit-ins in Iraq.
    Sit-ins, not strikes. If the Iraqi government will not respond to the demands of the Iraqi people, the second step will be staging a civil revolt. If the government will not respond, the third step will be issued soon," Sadr said in a statement read out by senior aide Hazim al-Araji.
    Iraqi security forces launched a major crackdown on militia, including Sadr's Mehdi Army, in the southern oil city of Basra on Tuesday.
    Sadr declared a ceasefire last August and extended it in February, but his followers took to the streets in some Baghdad neighbourhoods on Monday and Tuesday to stage what they called a "civil disobedience campaign", ordering shops to shut.
    In the town of Mahmudiya, shops were closed and streets were empty, a day after the Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia appeared in a show of force in some Baghdad districts and ordered shops to close in what they said was the start of a "civil disobedience campaign".
    Hundreds of protesters took to the streets, calling for the Iraqi government to fulfil their demands. The protesters were carrying banners and chnated anti U.S. slogans.
    The appearance of the feared militia, which the U.S. military once called the greatest threat to peace in Iraq, alarmed residents, but leaders of Sadr's political bloc in parliament stressed that it was a peaceful protest.
    The militia has kept a low profile since Sadr called a ceasefire last August and extended it last month, a move U.S. commanders say has helped to sharply reduce sectarian violence between Iraq's majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Muslims.
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