Just When You Thought It Couldn’t Get Worse
…It does. The BBC reports Iraqi cleric threatens ‘open war’
Radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has threatened to wage “open war” on the Baghdad government if it does not halt operations against his supporters.
Moqtada Sadr said he was giving the government a “last warning”, and urged it to take “the path of peace”.
His statement came as Iraqi troops, with US and UK support, clashed with his forces in Baghdad and the south.
He is comparing the Maliki government to Saddam, so this is pretty serious stuff. He has thousands of followers in Baghdad, and there is no way the US and Iraqi forces can stop them if all out war is declared. This could turn very nasty, as in Dien Bien Phu nasty, very quickly.
It would be extremely embarrassing if Iran had to invade to save the US and Iraqi armies.