"I judge it indispensable to halt all armed resistance operations until the complete withdrawal of the occupying forces"

Muslim Shia cleric Sayyed Moqtada Sadr has ordered his followers not to launch any attacks on US occupation troops before the completion of their pullout from Iraq scheduled for by the end of the year.
  
"In order that Iraq can recover its independence through the withdrawal of the invaders from our territory, I judge it indispensable to halt all armed resistance operations until the complete withdrawal of the occupying forces," Sayyed Sadr said in a statement received by AFP on Sunday.
  
"If the pullout is completed and there is no longer a single US soldier on our territory, the military operations will end definitively but if that is not the case and Iraq remains in a state of dependency, they will resume with greater vigor," Sadr said. He paid tribute to "the resistance for its actions" and said his movement was now working "hand in hand with the government to achieve the liberation of the country and supporting it against US pressure."