Sadr Accuses U.S. of Dividing Iraq Through Violence

Radical Shiite Cleric Calls on Iraqis to End U.S. 'Occupation' in Iraq

By Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, April 8, 2007; 5:08 PM

BAGHDAD, April 8 -- Calling America "the great evil," radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Sunday accused the United States of dividing Iraq through stoking violence, and he urged his Mahdi Army militiamen and Iraq's security forces to stop fighting each other in Diwaniyah, where clashes erupted over the weekend.

But the influential Shiite Muslim cleric stopped short of calling upon his fighters to rise up and battle U.S. troops, a move that would severely complicate an ongoing security offensive to pacify the capital and other parts of Iraq. Instead, Sadr ordered his followers to remain united and to go out and "demonstrate" in order to "end the occupation."

The call came on a bloody Easter Sunday for U.S. forces in Iraq, with the U.S. military announcing the deaths of 10 soldiers. Four soldiers were killed and one was wounded Saturday by an explosion near their vehicle in Diyala province north of Baghdad, and six died Sunday as a result of four separate attacks north and south of the capital, the military said.

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