Royal
05-07-2004, 12:22 PM
SLAVE THREAT TO TROOPS
A Shi'ite cleric in Basra has told worshippers that anyone who captures a female British soldier can keep her as a slave.
Sheik Abdul-Sattar al Bahadli told a crowd of about 3,000 they should launch a holy war against UK troops.
Al Bahadli is a senior aide to renegade cleric Moqtada al Sadr.
Taking Friday prayers, he offered money to anyone who kills members of the Iraq Governing Council set up by the US.
He brandished what he said were photographs of three Iraqi women being raped at British-run prisons.
Al Bahadli said the British had failed to honour a pledge not to patrol in Basra and to stop harassing pro-Sadr elements.
While he spoke he repeatedly lifted an assault rifle above his head, shouting "jihad".
Al Sadr himself has delivered a defiant sermon in Kufa, near the holy city of Najaf, despite massed US troops nearby.
Moqtada al Sadr
He heaped condemnation on President Bush over the abuse of Iraqi detainees by US soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.
"I demand the international community make Bush and all his deputies stand trial before an Iraqi court," he said.
Al Sadr demanded the Americans "free all the prisoners, destroy Abu Ghraib or transform it into a cultural site."
He visited Kufa on Tuesday, telling his armed supporters he would lead them to martyrdom.
Renewed fighting has broken out in Karbala between coalition forces and Iraqi insurgents.
The violence comes as a roadside bomb killed four Iraqi policemen and wounded one other in the northern Iraq city of Mosul.
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-13082198,00.html
A Shi'ite cleric in Basra has told worshippers that anyone who captures a female British soldier can keep her as a slave.
Sheik Abdul-Sattar al Bahadli told a crowd of about 3,000 they should launch a holy war against UK troops.
Al Bahadli is a senior aide to renegade cleric Moqtada al Sadr.
Taking Friday prayers, he offered money to anyone who kills members of the Iraq Governing Council set up by the US.
He brandished what he said were photographs of three Iraqi women being raped at British-run prisons.
Al Bahadli said the British had failed to honour a pledge not to patrol in Basra and to stop harassing pro-Sadr elements.
While he spoke he repeatedly lifted an assault rifle above his head, shouting "jihad".
Al Sadr himself has delivered a defiant sermon in Kufa, near the holy city of Najaf, despite massed US troops nearby.
Moqtada al Sadr
He heaped condemnation on President Bush over the abuse of Iraqi detainees by US soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.
"I demand the international community make Bush and all his deputies stand trial before an Iraqi court," he said.
Al Sadr demanded the Americans "free all the prisoners, destroy Abu Ghraib or transform it into a cultural site."
He visited Kufa on Tuesday, telling his armed supporters he would lead them to martyrdom.
Renewed fighting has broken out in Karbala between coalition forces and Iraqi insurgents.
The violence comes as a roadside bomb killed four Iraqi policemen and wounded one other in the northern Iraq city of Mosul.
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-13082198,00.html