Iraq: Muqtada al-Sadr praises 'noble resistance'

independent: Civil war looms as Iraq weeps over bridge of 1,000 sorrows

The trampling to death of 1,000 pilgrims and ongoing rows over the new constitution have pushed Iraq closer to a vicious civil war between Shia and Sunni Muslims.

The two communities are increasingly frightened of each other because of bloody sectarian attacks over the past two years. So far the Shias have responded to repeated attacks on them by tit-for-tat killings but senior clerics have urged patience. That was tested by the death of the pilgrims in a fear-driven stampede on a bridge in Baghdad last week.

The powerful Shia radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr suggested in a sermon on Friday that sectarian civil war had already started. He said: "We condemn the view that the [US] occupation's existence is beneficial for the Iraqi people because if it ended, there would be sectarian war - as if sectarian war had not already begun."

But Mr al-Sadr also praised the largely Sunni insurgents as "the noble resistance" and said Iraq was ruled by a colonial regime. Read more