Sadr militant to take up anti-US battle in Iraqi national assembly

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?ID=36954

BAGHDAD, Feb 7 (AFP) - A few months ago Fathallah Ghazi Ismail was at the forefront of the campaign by followers of Shiite Muslim radical cleric Moqtada Sadr against the US military in Iraq.

Now he is preparing to take up a seat, as the head of the Sadr list, in the national assembly which the US occupiers helped to set up. But he says his priorities have not changed.

Ismail, 38, proudly showed off a picture of himself seated with the firebrand cleric at his modest home in Sadr City, an impoverished Shiite neighbourhood of two million in eastern Baghdad.

His success in the January 30 election came out of the blue. snip

During the Sadr rebellion against American forces, Ismail was a political leader in Sadr City, whipping up crowds as he toured the neighbourhood on the back of a pickup truck during the funerals of Sadr "martyrs".

Now he wears a dark suit but the message is the same. "We say no to the United States and we will fight in parliament to obtain a timetable for withdrawal."

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