Iran Deplores Civilian Deaths in Basra, Sadr City

Iran deplored civilian deaths in Basra and Sadr City and said that the US forces should stop air strikes on the residential areas of the Shi’i cities.

Iran’s Ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi said on Saturday [19 April] that Tehran fully supports the policy of Iraqi government regarding the outlawed groups.

He told a press briefing in Baghdad that Tehran supports the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in confronting the outlaws reiterating that the Islamic Republic is against the US military approach regarding those groups in the Sadr City and several areas in the city of Basra five years after occupation.

Iraqi religious leader Moqtada Sadr protested to Iraqi government against military operations on his followers, al-Mahdi Army.

He warned the Iraqi government of public uprising if the operations continue in the two Shi’i cities of Basra and Sadr City.

Sadr declared unilateral ceasefire last August as an indication of goodwill and prohibited his followers from engaging with the Iraqi forces.

He accused Sunni rivals of infiltrating into the Iraqi Army inciting the attacks against his followers.

Iranian ambassador denounced the recent air strikes carried out by the US forces in the Sadr City and Basra which resulted in massacre of a large number of civilians.

Tehran believes that such US wrong policies would have bad consequences for the Iraqi popular government, the Iranian envoy stressed.

He further underscored that the Iraqi government is in charge of establishing security throughout the country.

Kazemi-Qomi voiced Tehran’s support for an Iraqi powerful army, saying, "We are in favour of a strong army in Iraq. All weapons must be in the hand of the government. There are 28 militias that exist in Iraq. We want to see all of them dissolved."

He added that presence of the US forces in Iraq is the root cause of all problems facing the Iraqi nation. The US wrong policies in Iraq have been defeated, he added.