KUFA, Iraq - Five supporters of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr were wounded Friday in a demonstration following the reading of a fiery sermon written by their leader, hospital sources said.
"If you leave us in peace, we will leave you in peace. You should be aware of the fact that the Mehdi Army is still alive and has its finger on the trigger," Sheikh Aws al-Khafaji said, reading a sermon by Sadr in the Kufa mosque in central Iraq.
He was referrring to the Sadr movement's militia, which pledged to give up its armed rebellion following a deadly standoff with US troops in the shrine city of Najaf last summer.
"The government we have been expecting for so long should take concrete action in favour of the prisoners from the Mehdi Army and the followers of the Sadr movement. If you don't free our prisoners, I am ready to die as a martyr," he added.
Stirred up by the young cleric's virulent sermon, hundreds of worshippers gathered after prayers and demonstrated to demand the release of the prisoners.
Clashes broke out with the police, who opened fire, an AFP correspondent reported.
"The protest was not authorised. The policemen first fired shots in the air, then there was an incident in which two people were injured," the province's deputy governor Hassan Attam told AFP.
Doctor Samir al-Zabhawi, from Kufa hospital, said he had received a total of five wounded.
Hundreds of Sadr fighters and supporters were detained by Iraqi and US forces during the protracted fighting in Najaf last summer.
Scores of others were also nabbed last year during fighting in the cleric's Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City, a two-million-strong slum named after his revered father.
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