NAJAF, Iraq, Jan 7, (Agencies): The Shiite radical movement of Moqtada al-Sadr, which fought two wars with US troops in 2004, threatened on Wednesday to resume attacks on American targets inside Iraq over Washington’s support for the Israeli assault on Gaza. “I ask the Iraqi resistance to engage in revenge operations against the United States, the biggest partner of the Zionist enemy,” Sadr said in a statement issued by his office in the central shrine city of Najaf. He called on “all countries which host Israeli embassies on their territory to close down those missions which are the source of terrorism in Arab and Islamic countries as a sign of support for the Palestinian people.”

He called on Iraqis to “place Palestinian flags on the roofs of all buildings, mosques and churches in a show of support for the mujahedeen (holy warriors) in Gaza. Sadr’s movement, which draws broad support from poorer Shiites and dominates the vast Baghdad slum district of Sadr City, has long been a staunch opponent of the US-led military presence in Iraq. The US State Department dismissed al-Sadr’s calls, describing them as “outrageous.” “Any call for attacks against Americans is outrageous and, frankly, not worthy of much more comment,” deputy State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters. “Outside calls to attack Americans for what’s going on in the region are outrageous.”

Meanwhile, Shi’ites in Iraq gathered in their thousands to observe an annual ritual of mourning on Wednesday, an event that has become a show of strength for a majority whose public worship was repressed by Saddam Hussein. Ashura, the most important day in the Shi’ite calendar, was largely peaceful, guarded by an unprecedented police and army presence three days after a suicide bomber killed 35 pilgrims outside a Baghdad shrine. At processions of thousands at Baghdad’s Kadhimiya shrine and at other holy sites in Iraq men sobbed, cut their scalps with daggers and whipped their backs with chains to mourn the death of Imam Hussein, (PBUH) grandson of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

A road leading to a golden-domed Mosque at the north Baghdad shrine, scene of the bloody bomb attack on Sunday, was again spattered with blood — but this time it streamed from pilgrims cutting gashes in their heads: a traditional rite of mourning. Thousands chanted “Haider, Haider” another name for Imam Ali, Imam Hussein’s father, to commemorate the slaying of his son in the 7th century battle of Kerbala. Groups of men, some riding horses, dressed up in medieval military outfits with spiked helmets and chainmail to re-enact the battle between followers of Hussein and his enemy Yazid. Others waved green and red flags. Women wailed. Huge vats of stew steamed over wood fires on the roadside and a canal was dyed red to symbolise Hussein’s blood.

To tighten security, authorities had forbidden women from entering the entire district of Kadhimiya surrounding the Baghdad shrine, because it is hard for male police officers to search them, but on Wednesday the ban was lifted. A gun attack which wounded four pilgrims in another part of Baghdad late on Tuesday underscored the security challenge. Local officials said 2 million pilgrims marched through Kerbala city, about 55,000 of them from overseas, mostly Shi’ite Iran. They included 2,500 Indians, 2,700 Bahrainis, more than a thousand pilgrims each from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Malaysia, and 500 American and 750 French Muslims. “I came with my sons and we were really surprised by how many pilgrims there are,” said Qassim Adouani, 56, who travelled from Bahrain. “This is a very important ritual I had always hoped I would see once in my life. Thanks to God, now I have.”