Sayyed Moqtada al-Sadr warned that any US training mission in Iraq after 2011 would amount to an occupation force and need to be opposed by "military means"

Muslim Shia cleric Sayyed Moqtada al-Sadr warned that any US training mission in Iraq after 2011 would amount to an occupation force and need to be opposed by "military means," in a letter seen on Sunday.
  
The letter, released on Saturday in the cleric's base in the holy city of Najaf, came after Baghdad agreed to open talks with Washington for a training mission post-2011, when all US troops are due to have left.
  
"We will treat anyone who stays in Iraq as an oppressive occupier that should be resisted through military means," Sayyed Sadr said in a letter released by his office. "The government that agrees to their stay, even if it is for training, is a weak government."
  
His movement issued a code of conduct to followers last month stating they must consider "as enemies only the United States, Britain and Israel, and take into account that military resistance should be conducted by specialists."
  
Sayyed Sadr's remarks come after Iraqi political leaders agreed on Wednesday to start negotiations with Washington on a US military mission to train Iraqi security forces.