Iraq: Sadr spokesman issues 'vailed threat' to British forces

latimes: ...In other news Sunday, members of the Shiite Al Mahdi militia blockaded streets in the southern town of Basra, protesting the arrest of two of their leaders by British forces who patrol the city.

The militia - loyal to cleric Muqtada Sadr, an outspoken foe of the U.S. occupation - staged violent uprisings in Baghdad, Najaf and Basra last summer that ended with a cease-fire brokered by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric.

The militia was supposed to have disarmed, but its members have been accused of a campaign of attacks and assassinations in Basra targeting political rivals, coalition forces and former high-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.

Khalil Maliki, a Sadr spokesman in Basra, issued a thinly veiled threat of further violence if the two detained men weren't set free soon.

"We decided to give [the British] a period until we will react and they will face the Sadr people's anger," he said. Link

db: Prediction: They will walk