Word: maliki
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...fighting and the rhetoric had ramped up Saturday. As U.S. warplanes targeted militiamen in Basra, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that the government's enemies in the south were "worse than al-Qaeda." A Sadrist spokesman then retorted that fighters should not surrender their weapons except to a government committed to ejecting U.S. troops from Iraq. But on Sunday, Sadr, in a statement released through his office in the holy city of Najaf, called on his followers to stop making "armed appearances." He said he hoped to avoid more bloodshed. This week's violence has claimed hundreds...
...Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has staked his credibility and that of his government on the Iraqi military's ability to crack down on militants in Iraq's second-largest city. He and top security ministers traveled south as the operation got underway to supervise it in person. But the pretense that the operation was simply a crackdown on ragtag criminal elements fell by wayside as militias in Basra offered stiff resistance...
...Sadr's offer of peace on Sunday followed a much harsher statement against Maliki's government just a day earlier...
...events in Basra today are the straw that has broken the camel's back," he continued. "To Maliki we say, the Mahdi Army has the ability to stop those who attack it, and we are prepared for that...
...Mahdi Army stiffened its military and rhetorical resistance, Maliki upped the ante as well. Saturday, during a televised meeting with tribal leaders in Basra, he accused enemy fighters in Basra of being "worse than al-Qaeda." It was an inflammatory and ironic statement, since the militia, in addition to its attacks on Sunni civilians and its criminal activities, has often defended Shi'ites from Sunni terrorists when the government proved powerless...