Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Baghdad, Apr 26, (VOI) – A Sadrist legislator accused the U.S. forces on Saturday of using “internationally-banned weapons” during the military operations in the eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City.

“Cogent evidence were shown by the criminal investigations and forensics’ reports that the occupation forces have used fissile arms during the bombardment of Sadr City,” Liqaa Al Yassin, a member of parliament from the Sadrist bloc, or Iraqis loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).

The Sadrists comprise a Shiite parliamentary bloc that keeps 30 out of a total 275 seats.

“When diffused, fissile bombs hit a large number of targets and spread on the body, which was evidently clear on the bodies of the dead and wounded in Sadr City,” Yassin, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s Health & Environment Committee, said.

For his part, Abdul-Latif Rayan, the media advisor for the Multi-National Force (MNF) in Iraq, told VOI that the accusations were groundless.
“We only targeted armed groups in Sadr City that fired missiles at the Green Zone in central Baghdad,” Rayan said.

Sadr City, a stronghold of Sadr’s Mahdi Army militias, has been witnessing armed clashes since Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced last month the commencement of a security operation codenamed Saulat al-Forsan (Knights’ Assault) in the port city of Basra, Iraq’s second largest province and an oil-hub, 590 km south of Baghdad, which he said targeted “outlaws”.

Hundreds of Sadr supporters were killed or wounded in intense fighting, which still continue so far.