Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr calls for open sit-in demo to force U.S. forces out of Iraq.

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Leader of Iraq’s Al-Sadr Trend, Young Shiite Cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, has called on Saturday for an open sit-in demonstration, to force the American forces to leave Iraq by the end of this year, a Sadrist spokesman said.   “Sayid Muqtada al-Sadr, has called, in an address before thousands of demonstrators in Baghdad on Saturday, for an open sit-in demonstration, in protest against the American occupation of Iraq , to force the U.S. forces to leave the country,” Hazim al-Aaraji said during his reading of Sadr’s statement before the demonstrators.   Muqtada al-Sadr, he said, had also called on the demonstrators to head for the Shiite holy city of Najaf , to visit the grave of the “First Martyr, Sayid Mohammed Baqir alSadr, after the end of the demonstration today (Saturday).”   “The Political Commission of the Sadrist Trend has issued a decision to raise the pictures of the First and the Second   Sadrist Martyrs in all bureaus of Muqtada al-Sadr, as well as other areas belonging to them,” he added.   Noteworthy is that hundreds of thousands of the Sadrist Trend members and supporters have demonstrated in Baghdad on Saturday, in protest to the 9 th anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq , in 2003.   The U.S. Combat forces had withdrawn from Iraq at the end of last August, according to the Security Agreement, signed between Baghdad and Washington at the end of 2008, provided that the remaining 50,000 U.S. troops would withdraw from the country by the end of this year.   SKH (RT) 1056