One of Ours

...Muqtada al-Sadr threatened "the Baathists" whom the Coalition had begun returning to the administration of the state. He said in his Friday prayer sermon that the Americans "are attempting to return the Baathists to the administration of the state. I will not permit it. They will meet their end at the hands of the believers."...

...Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and his three colleagues in Najaf issued a strong denunciation of Muqtada al-Sadr for his threat to unleash suicide bombers against the Americans if they invaded Najaf. The statement said that neither Sistani nor any other authority had authorized suicide bombings, and Muqtada did not have the standing to issue such a decree.