BAGHDAD, April 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraq's radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr threatened in his Friday sermon to wage suicide attacks on US troops if they try to enter the holy city.
The cleric made the announcement when he gave the weekly sermon to thousands of followers in Kufa, near the Shiite holy city of Najaf in central south, witnesses said.
"If we have to defend our city and the holy sites, we will all become human time bombs in the face of the enemy," he said.
Sadr's Mehdi Army was confronting the US-led coalition forces in southern cities around Najaf, surrounded by some 2,000 US troops who were ready to attack the city to "kill or capture" Sadr and destroy his 10,000 strong militia.
Local residents told Xinhua that Sadr urged Najaf citizens to act like their "brothers in Fallujah," a restive city witnessing stiff resistance against the US Marines west of Baghdad.
The cleric added he rejected the demands raised by the US forces to hand over a list of the Mehdi Army and turn it into a political party.
The US-led coalition has branded Sadr as an outlaw suspected of involvement in the murder of a pro-US Shiite cleric last year.
A face-to-face confrontation with militias supporting Sadr has lasted three weeks in southern Iraq, leaving some 200 Iraqis and dozens of coalition troops dead. Enditem
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