Seriousness of Sadr threat unclear : Rice

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today that she did not know how seriously to take a threat of all-out war by Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and rebuked him for threatening violence while living abroad.

Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia have battled US and Iraqi government forces, threatened yesterday to launch an "open war until liberation" against the US-backed government if it continued a month-old crackdown on his followers.

The threat from the Shi'ite cleric was followed by what the US military called the heaviest fighting for weeks in his east Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City.

"He is still living in Iran. I guess it's all out war for anybody but him," Rice said of Sadr, who has not appeared in public in Iraq in nearly a year.

"His followers can go to their death and he will still be in Iran," she told reporters travelling with her on a trip to Baghdad.

The US military has said Sadr has spent most of the past year in neighbouring Shi'ite Iran. The cleric's aides have routinely denied this. - Reuters