Iraqis flock to Mahdi's Shia army against US occup, up to 1 million signed

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

Iraqis Flock to Shi'ite Army

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/08/06/wirq06.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/08/06/ixhome.html

Iraqis flock to Mahdi's Shia army
(Filed: 06/08/2003)


A militia of mostly Shia men is growing in response to a call to arms made by a maverick young cleric. Harry de Quetteville in Baghdad reports on Muqtader al-Sadr's army against US occupation.


As evening falls in the poor Shia suburb of Baghdad once known as Saddam City, dozens of volunteers queue under the watchful gaze of a local imam to sign up for the army.

But this is not the new Iraqi army sponsored and approved by the American-led administration. These soldiers will receive no monthly salary of £40. Here, prospective warriors are ready to serve, and die, for nothing.

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Now the ranks of this religious army, named after an ancient imam who Shias believe will return to save the world, have swollen into tens of thousands, perhaps more.
"On the very first day after the call, up to 1 million people signed," claimed Sheikh Hassan al-Zurgani, a Baghdad representative of the Hawza, a Shia seminary based in Najaf.
"The official Iraqi army is the puppet of the USA," he added. "Now our people are willing to be martyrs and the USA must fear us."

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