BAGHDAD - The top US official in Iraq, Paul Bremer, branded Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr an outlaw Monday and warned US forces would not tolerate an uprising led by the firebrand religious leader and his followers.
"We have a difficult security situation. We have a group under Moqtada al-Sadr that has basically placed itself outside the legal authorities, the coalition and Iraqi officials," he told a meeting of Iraq's top security officials.
"Effectively he is attempting to establish his authority in the place of the legitimate authority.
"We will not tolerate this. We will reassert the law and order which the Iraqi people expect," Bremer told the session of the Ministerial Committee for National Security.
