Moqtada al-Sadr warned on Saturday his supporters will resume armed opposition if US forces stay in Iraq beyond their scheduled departure late this year http://www.abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=235789

“My basic message to them is (for us to) just be present in some areas where they still need help. We are open to that possibility,” the Pentagon chief said. “But they have to ask, and time is running out in Washington,” he said, after meeting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani and Massud Barzani, president of the autonomous Kurdistan region in the north. But Sadr on Saturday warned US forces must leave “to the last soldier and base.”

Nearly 50,000 American troops are still in Iraq, down from a peak of more than 170,000 after the invasion eight years ago, and ahead of the planned full withdrawal at the end of this year. “Peaceful resistance will end and military resistance in every way will resume,” if American forces remain beyond the departure date, said Kamal al-Saadi, a Sadrist lawmaker at the protest. “The voices calling for the occupation forces to stay are weak, while the loud voices are from all Iraqis, who reject the occupiers,” he told AFP.“I warn America and its people that if their military does not leave, we will crush their mouldy heads,” said Kadhem Monkhi, a 25-year-old at the rally. “We are not afraid of death.”