The latest fatality pushed the number of US combat deaths in the Iraq conflict above those from the 1991 Gulf War � 148 compared to147 � amid mounting concern at home over troops getting embroiled in a guerrilla-style war that has shown no sign of abating. Efforts to restore order and get rebuilding work under way faced a further challenge with leading Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr delivering a fiery broadside to the US-led occupation, blasting the US-imposed executive as illegitimate.
�They have delivered this peaceful Muslim country to the foreign forces,� he said in his first Friday sermon since the coalition unveiled Iraq�s new executive governing council last weekend. The outspoken attack comes as a disturbing turn for the United States, which has counted on Iraq�s Shiite majority � long repressed under Saddam � to support its efforts to wipe out regime loyalists and rebuild Iraq.
Sadr, a fierce opponent of Saddam�s regime who had his father assassinated, is known for his confrontational style and is seen by some as a threat to US ambitions to impose a Western-style democracy in Iraq.
Thousands of Sunnis meanwhile protested in Baghdad against the governing council as Sunni imams used their weekly sermons to accuse the Shiite-dominated body of planting the seeds of civil strife.
Naseer Al-Nahr � Asharq Al-Awsat Arab News 19, July,2003
