I Know That You Want the Candy

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In a stucco compound at the center of the Sadr City neighborhood here, a follower of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr gleefully handed out candies and toffees to visitors Monday.

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“Have a chocolate,” the thin, bearded man said. “This is for our victory over [Prime Minister Nouri] Maliki.” … [snip]

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At Sadr’s compound, in a room decorated with plastic flowers, Sheik Salman Freiji, head of the Sadr organization in east Baghdad, called on parliament to force Maliki to resign. He also warned that although the Sadrists were now observing a cease-fire, it was still legitimate to fight the Americans.

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“The military operations against the occupation forces in Iraq will continue until the last soldier of the occupation leaves Iraq,” Freiji said.

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Others at the compound compared Maliki to the late Hussein, criticizing the prime minister for targeting the Mahdi Army and not other groups in the oil-rich port of Basra.