Professor Juan Cole tells us: "Muqtada al-Sadr was wounded by US bombardment of Najaf on Friday morning, according to Reuters.
Sadr spokesman Ahmad al-Shinabi told Reuters, 'Sayyed Moqtada was wounded in American bombing. He suffered three injuries to his body.' The wounds are not considered life threatening, and are being treated at the Imam Ali Mosque....
My guess is that if Muqtada is killed, and maybe also if he is captured and imprisoned, that will tip the Sadr movement into conducting a long-term low-intensity guerrilla war, similar to what Sunni radicals and Arab nationalists have done in the Sunni heartland for the past 16 months. The south had been much quieter than the Sunni Arab areas, but I suspect that calm can no longer be taken for granted. The question is what happens to the Iraqi government if it faces two major guerrilla insurgencies going on at the same time."
different voices
10 years ago