Iraqi Sadr movement warns of US new occupation tactics after withdrawal

A spokesman of the Shiite Sadr Movement welcomed the withdrawal of the US forces from Iraq's soil as a victory for his country, but meantime warned that the US is practicing new tactics to continue its occupation of Iraq. "The Sadr Movement, while expressing its great happiness for the end of Iraq's 9-year-long occupation, warns about the country's intelligence occupation by the US spies and intelligence agencies, and urges the security forces to confront them," Salah al-Abidi told FNA on Tuesday. "With God's assistance, the US Army's pullout will be the beginning of the Iraqi nation's victory in all fields," he added. Abidi also reiterated that those Iraqi officials who had supported the US attempts to extend its presence in the country will be ashamed of their position in future when they will witness Iraq's progress. Nearly nine years after American troops stormed across Iraq's border in a blaze of shock, US officials quietly ended the bloody and bitterly divisive conflict in Iraq on Thursday, but the debate over whether it was worth the cost in money and lives is yet unanswered. Nearly 4,500 Americans and 100,000 Iraqis killed. Another 32,000 American and tens of thousands of Iraqis have been wounded and the war cost US billions of dollars.