Armed Sadrists Take Back Their Hq Near

Juan Cole 10/22/2003

Armed Sadrists take Back their HQ near Basra

Shaikh Murtada al-Hajjaj, the assistant head of the office of Muqtada al-Sadr in Basra, said that 100 Sadrist militiamen succeeded in taking back control of their headquarters in Shatt al-Arab, 3 kilometers south of Basra, from the Iraqi police and British troops that had occupied it last Thursday. Al-Hajjaj said that British troops suddenly confiscated the building and installed Iraqi police in last week. On Tuesday, 100 Sadrists came out to protest, and were able to take back control of the HQ. (AFP – al-Zaman).

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page