Iraqi radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his fighters off the streets yesterday, in a move the government said would help end fierce clashes that have killed hundreds across the country.
"We want the Iraqi people to stop this bloodshed and maintain Iraq's independence and stability," Sadr said in a statement with his seal released by his headquarters in the holy city of Najaf. "For that we have decided to withdraw from the streets of Basra and all other provinces."
Sadr's latest call came after six days of fighting between Shiite fighters and Iraqi forces in Basra, Baghdad and other Shiite regions.
He said he made the decision because it was his "legitimate responsibility to stop the bleeding of Iraqis, to maintain the reputation of Iraqi people, the unity of land and people, to prepare for its independence and liberation from the dark forces and to quell the fire of division by the occupier and its followers."
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh welcomed al-Sadr's order.
"A large number of people will listen to this Moqtada al-Sadr's call. Life will return to all of Iraq as before," Dabbagh said on state television al-Iraqiya.
"The government will be forced to implement the law against those who do not obey the instructions of the government and of Sadr," he said.
Clashes erupted on Tuesday when Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched an assault on Shiite militiamen in neighborhoods of Basra controlled by Sadr's Mehdi Army, the most powerful Shiite militia in the country.
Sadr's call came after negotiations in Najaf that began on Saturday between representatives of his movement and the Iraqi authorities.
Maliki had given a 72-hour deadline to Shiite fighters in Basra to disarm after launching an offensive against them on Tuesday, but the call was ignored.
"Sadr has told us not to surrender our arms except to a state that can throw out the [US] occupation," Haider al-Jabari of the Sadr movement's political bureau said on Saturday.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
RSS