Iraqi Shi'i cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose militia has battled US troops, vowed to help defend Syria and Iran after a meeting in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. “I am at the service of Syria and Iran. I will defend all Muslim countries with all means,” he told reporters. “I am at the service of all those whose aim is to rebuild Iraq, the Middle East, and Muslim and Arab states.”
Washington accuses Syria and Iran of supporting "terrorism," while Tehran is under international pressure over its nuclear program and Syria faces charges of involvement in the 2005 murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri. Sadr accused “Israel, the United States and Britain, which are enemies of Iraq and Syria, of sowing dissent between the Syrian and Iraqi peoples.”
His talks with Assad focused on the political process in Iraq and “the consultations underway to form a new government” following general elections held in mid-December, the state news agency SANA said. Sadr, who arrived on Sunday and also met with Foreign Minister Farouk Shara'a, paid tribute to Syria’s “support for the Iraqi people” and vowed to “maintain coordination” with Damascus.
Meanwhile in Iraq, Sunni Arabs have formed their own militia to counter Shi'i and Kurdish forces as part of an attempt to regain influence they lost after Saddam Hussein was toppled. The so-called “Anbar Revolutionaries” have emerged from a split in the anti-US resistance, which included Al-Qaeda. They are a new addition to a network of militias that have thrived in Iraq’s bloody chaos and are tied to the country’s leading ethnic and political parties, now negotiating the formation of a coalition government after the Dec. 15 election, the second such polls since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
The newly organized militia is made up mostly of Saddam loyalists, Iraqi Islamists and other nationalists leading resistance against US and Iraqi government forces. Sunni officials said Sunni fighters first decided to reorganize their forces into a militia after their tactical alliance with Al-Qaeda, who are also Sunnis, unraveled when Al-Qaeda bombs began killing fellow Sunnis in recent months. |