...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
saying it would capture the sacred Shiite cities of Najaf and Karbala and bomb Shiite shrines inside the two cities, one of the most influential Shiite religious and political figures in Iraq,
Moqtada Tateral-Sadr
... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah...
, has threatened the Islamic State in kind.
"If you touch our sacred shrines and cities, we will make Iraq full of your grimy bodies," Sadr said in a statement.
"Those who claim they would attack our cities, they must expect a very tough battle," he added.
Sadr called on Iraqi forces to take his statements seriously and to protect Shiite holy places from ISIS bad boys. Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army often battled with US forces between 2003 and 2011.
Hashd al-Shaabi Shiite forces of Evil have formed a force of an estimated 1,500 in Karbala and Najaf to protect the cities from ISIS.
On May 15 ISIS seized control of Ramadi, sending Iraqi forces racing out of the city in a major loss despite the support of US-led