Al-Sadr: U.S. Security Doomed To Fail

The leader of Iraq's biggest Shiite militia complained Sunday that bombs "continue to explode" in Baghdad and that U.S.-led security crackdown is doomed to fail, adding that Iraqi forces should operate independently of the U.S. "occupiers."

Many Shiites believe that bombings have continued because the Shiite-led government bowed to American pressure and convinced radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to take his Mahdi Army fighters off the streets.

Al-Sadr's statement, read to his followers in Sadr City, is likely to add pressure on U.S. and Iraqi forces to show results in the nearly two-week-old crackdown.

"I'm certain, just like all oppressed Iraqis are certain, that no security plan will work and no good will come of any occupier," al-Sadr said in the statement. "Here we are, watching booby trapped cars exploding to harvest thousands of innocent lives from our beloved people in the middle of a security plan that is controlled by an occupier who does as he pleases."

U.S. and Iraqi leaders have urged the public to be patient, warning that it will take months before the security operation shows results. President George W. Bush has ordered 21,500 more U.S. troops to Baghdad and surrounding areas, although the last units are not due here until May.

Iraqi officials have reported a sharp drop in sectarian reprisal killings since the operation began. The Mahdi militia has been blamed for much of those killings, and the decline could be because many of their fighters are lying low.

The statement was the first public comment by the Shiite cleric since U.S. officials said last week that he had left the country, probably for Iran.

Al-Sadr's aides and lawmakers loyal to him have insisted that he had never left the country and Iran denied he was there. But an aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said last week that al-Sadr went to Iran about three weeks earlier.

The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information to the media.

In statement, al-Sadr called on both Sunnis and Shiites to "scorn sectarianism and hoist the banner of unity." He urged Iraq's mostly Shiite security forces to "make your own Iraqi plans independent of the Americans.