Iraq ticks louder

The black-turbaned imam sounded ready for martyrdom. Standing in the courtyard of the golden-domed Shrine of Ali on Friday, staring at 2,500 worshippers seated on rugs, Sadr Al-Din Al-Kubanchi denounced the army that had invaded this holy city: ‘‘Not Americans, but members of the ragtag Shi’ite militia known as the Mahdi Army.’’

They and their leader, Muqtada Al-Sadr, brought the war with US to Najaf three weeks ago. More than 2,500 US soldiers have encircled the city in an attempt to flush out Al-Sadr.

Al-Sadr spent Friday in Kufa where he walked into a mosque full of worshippers pumping their fists in the air.

‘‘We will be human time bombs which will explode in their faces,’’ Al-Sadr said. ‘‘They have humiliated us, so how will we react? We believe we can humiliate them.’’ Al-Sadr delivered his sermon wrapped in the kind of white cloth usually draped over a Muslim’s corpse before burial. — (NYT)