Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on Iraqis to stage sit-ins and threatened a countrywide ”civil revolt” if attacks by United States and Iraqi security forces continue against his followers. ”We call upon all Iraqis to stage sit-ins all over Iraq as a first step,” Sadr said in a statement read out by senior aide Hazem al-Araji.
Local authorities began evacuating hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from the Iraqi city of Karbala on Tuesday as a battle raged between Iraqi security forces and gunmen near two of Shi’ite Islam’s holiest shrines. A senior security source in Baghdad said 25 people had been killed, mostly police officers.