Rice mocks Sadr's threat of uprising

BAGHDAD - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocked anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a coward yesterday, hours after the radical leader threatened to declare war unless U.S. and Iraqi forces ended a crackdown on his followers.

Rice, in the Iraqi capital to tout security gains and what she calls an emerging political consensus, said Sadr was content to issue threats and edicts from the safety of Iran, where he is studying. Sadr heads a militia that was the main target of an Iraqi government assault in the oil-rich city of Basra last month, and his future role as a spoiler is an open question.

"I know he's sitting in Iran," Rice said dismissively, when asked about Sadr's latest threat to lift a self-imposed cease-fire with government and U.S. forces. "I guess it's all-out war for anybody but him."

In a statement on his Web site, Sadr said: "We denounce the visit of U.S. secretary, asking the government to ban the entrance of the terrorists' occupiers to our pure land."

The statement asked Iraqis to express their opposition to the visit through peaceful means.

A full-scale uprising by Sadr, who led two rebellions against U.S.-led forces in 2004, could lead to a dramatic increase in violence in Iraq at a time when the Sunni extremist group al-Qaeda in Iraq appears poised for attacks after suffering severe blows last year.

In a warning posted Saturday on his Web site, Sadr said he had tried to defuse tensions by declaring the truce last August, only to see the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki respond by closing his offices and "resorting to assassinations."

Rice praised Maliki for confronting Sadr's Mahdi Army, which had a choke hold on Basra, Iraq's second-largest city. The assault was Maliki's most decisive act by far against Sadr, a fellow Shiite and once a political patron. Kurdish and Sunni politicians, including a chief rival, have since rallied to Maliki, and the Bush administration argues he could emerge stronger from what had appeared to be a military blunder.

"Some of the violence is a byproduct of a good decision" to take on militias and consolidate military power, Rice told reporters after a few hours of meetings and lunch with Iraqi leaders.

"That, I think, is what has given the sense to the Iraqis that they have a new opportunity," Rice said.