We killed him:
[Sahib] Al-Aamiri was a leader of the Sadr Movement in Najaf, which follows young nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. KarbalaNews.net in Arabic quotes a leader of the Sadrist bloc in parliament, Nassar al-Ruba’i, expressing condolences for the death of this “martyr” who “was killed by the American forces,” after he had performed his dawn prayers, “in front of his wife and children.” He added, “This action is considered a clear violation of Iraqi sovereignty, especially coming only days after the security file in Najaf was surrendered last week.” He demanded that the Iraqi government open an urgent inquiry into the killing. Family members said that US troops assaulted his home in the wee hours and killed him, accusing him of resisting capture. Al-Ruba’i accused the US of trying to bring down the government of Nuri al-Maliki, whose Da’wa Party is allied politically with the Sadrists.
Another Sadrist MP, Baha’ al-A`raji, said, “We demand that political forces take a united stand against the Occupation forces and in favor of a timetable for their withdrawal, because silence will lead to a timetable for the expulsion of Iraqis from their own country by the Occupation, and to the Americans remaining in Iraq.”
The one thing that we really cannot afford in Iraq is for the Shi’ites to rise up and start demanding that we leave Iraq. Nothing is simple when it comes to the Shi’ites, and for all I know Ayatollah Sistani (who dominates Najaf) is pleased with this U.S. action. We better hope so. But even if this assassination doesn’t cause us serious problems, our troops are already in an untenable position trying to work with police that are under the sway of different militias. We’ve passed the point of turning this effort around. Now we are just wasting lives and money.
