Iraqi cleric threatens us troops

  the Mehdi Army is still a force to be reckoned with which says its Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr leader and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr has threatened to take up arms against US troops unless they leave the country at the end of the year.

In a rare interview, he told the BBC he believed that American forces could not be established in an agreement to withdraw from Iraq.

The United States still have approximately 46,000 soldiers in Iraq, due to him having withdrawn in January 2012.

On Thursday, tens of thousands of followers of the imam rallied in Baghdad, the call for Americans to leave.

The Pentagon has been pressing the Iraqi Government to decide soon whether it will ask some to stay beyond the deadline.

In Sadr City, Baghdad's Moqtada al-Sadr stronghold, supporters marched in military formation, their boots trampling on the flags of the United States, United Kingdom and Israel.

It was members of the Mehdi Army, a Shiite militia which fought a bitter sectarian war American invasion.

They sported a new uniform - gone was the trademark of black shirts of the past. Instead, they wore the colours of the Iraqi flag - red, white and black - with Allah Akbar (God is great) affixed through the medium.

It was an attempt to transform a source of contention spent sectarian in a broad nationalist appeal.

Message appears to tell us - we're in this together, the Iraqi Shiites or Sunnis, against the Americans.

Growing confidence

There was no weapon in evidence but, speaking of the BBC, Moqtada al-Sadr said that the Mehdi army was still a fighting force with which it takes.

Demonstrations were held in the suburb of primarily Shia Sadr City

"I know that the Iraqi Government is under considerable pressure from the US occupier, to enable them to stay in Iraq" he said in the Holy City of Najaf.

"If the Americans withdraw, we will be reactivating of the Mehdi Army." At this time, their activities are frozen, but if the Americans remain, will change.

"We are still the resistance and we can even hit their bases, troops and equipment until they are at Iraq.

Until January, Moqtada al-Sadr has spent most of the past two years in exile in Iran, squeezed out by a combined us and Iraqi military effort.

But the elections last year marked a turning point in his fortune. His party did better than expected in the survey, and now it is back in Iraq, with seats in Parliament and a growing sense of confidence.

The Americans still have thousands of troops in Iraq, and nervous of the growing influence of the Iran, they make it clear that they would like to keep some of them in the country beyond the end of this year.

But, in order to do this, they must be invited to stay by the Iraqi Government. And Moqtada al-Sadr seems determined to stand as the man who pushed the.