The powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his militiamen to redouble their battle to oust US forces and argued that Iraq's army and police should join him in defeating "your archenemy."
Also, the US military announced the weekend deaths of 10 US soldiers, including six killed on Sunday.
Security remained so tenuous in the capital on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the US capture of Baghdad that Iraq's military declared a 24-hour ban on all vehicles in the capital from 5am yesterday. The government quickly reinstated yesterday as a holiday, just a day after it had decreed that April 9 no longer would be a day off.
PHOTO: AP
Among the 10 US deaths announced Sunday were three soldiers killed by a roadside bomb while patrolling south of Baghdad; one killed in an attack south of the capital; and two who died of combat wounds sustained north of the capital, in Diyala and Salahuddin provinces. On Saturday, the military said, four US soldiers were killed in an explosion near their vehicle in Diyala.
At least 3,280 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003. The figure includes seven military civilians.
South of Baghdad, a truck bomb exploded near the Mahmoudiya General Hospital, killing at least 18 people and wounding 23. The pickup truck loaded with artillery shells blew apart several buildings in a warren of auto repair shops.
Violence in Iraq remained as relentless as the deepening debate in the US about the way forward in the war four years after Marines and the Army's 3rd Infantry Division swept into the Iraqi capital 20 days into the US invasion.
At least 47 people were killed or found dead in violence on Sunday, including 17 execution victims dumped in the capital.
Al-Sadr commands an enormous following among Iraq's majority Shiites and has close allies in the Shiite-dominated government. He reportedly ordered his militia to disarm and stay off the streets during a Baghdad security crackdown that began Feb. 14, though he has nevertheless issued a series of sharp anti-US statements, demanding the immediate withdrawal of US troops.
Sunday's statement was apparently issued in response to three days of clashes between his Mehdi Army militiamen and US-backed Iraqi troops in Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad.
The statement carried his seal and was distributed in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, where the cleric called for an enormous demonstration to mark the fourth anniversary of Baghdad's fall.
The rally would also be held in the neighboring town of Kufa. Both towns lie about 160km south of Baghdad.
US officials have said al-Sadr left Iraq for neighboring Iran after the start of a US and Iraqi security crackdown. His followers say he is in Iraq.
"You, the Iraqi army and police forces, don't walk alongside the occupiers, because they are your archenemy," the al-Sadr statement said.
He urged his followers not to attack fellow Iraqis but to turn all their efforts on US forces.
"God has ordered you to be patient in front of your enemy, and unify your efforts against them -- not against the sons of Iraq," the statement said.
In Washington, Senator Joseph Lieberman said al-Sadr's words showed the US troop surge was working.
"He is not calling for a resurgence of sectarian conflict. He's striking a nationalist chord. We're going to have to watch him closely. He's not our friend. ... He's acknowledging that the surge is working," the senator, a strong backer of the war, said on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer.
In Najaf, police spokesman Col. Ali Jiryo said cars were banned from entering the city for 24 hours starting 8pm on Sunday. Buses were to be at all entrances of the city to transport arriving demonstrators or other visitors to the city center. Najaf residents would be allowed to drive, he said.
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