After prayers Friday in Baghdad's Sadr City area, Shiites protested the Israeli bombings in Lebanon.

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BAGHDAD — The radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Friday that Iraqis would not "sit by with folded hands" while Israel struck at Lebanon, signaling a possible increase in attacks from his mercurial militia, the Mahdi Army.

In a written statement, al-Sadr also said that he considered the United States culpable in the conflict unfolding in Lebanon, since America is the largest foreign ally of Israel.

Al-Sadr's statement was issued at a time of rising tensions between the U.S. military and the Mahdi Army, with U.S. forces carrying out raids against Mahdi hide-outs and arresting senior leaders.

Other Shiite clerics denounced Israel's attacks on Lebanon during Friday prayers, and hundreds of Iraqis demonstrated to show solidarity with the Lebanese.

Thousands of Iraqis also demonstrated in the Shiite district of Sadr City in Baghdad and the southeastern cities of Kut and Amarah, praising the leader of Hezbollah and denouncing Israel and the United States. Some protesters said they were ready to fight the Israelis. "No, no to Israel! No, no to America!" they chanted.

U.S. commanders have strongly denounced militias in recent days and have pledged to try to curtail the militias' death squads, which they say are feeding the spiraling cycles of sectarian violence.