Free Republic

Hundreds of supporters of a powerful Shia Muslim cleric camped outside parliament in Baghdad overnight a day after thousands stormed the Green Zone and entered the parliament building, prompting the declaration of a state of emergency. Hundreds of people gathered in protest at the failure of Iraqi MPs to convene for a vote to approve new ministers. The unrest comes after weeks of political turmoil in Baghdad over efforts by the prime minister Haider al-Abadi, to replace party-affiliated ministers with technocrats. MPs failed to reach a quorum to approve the measures on Saturday. On Saturday the protesters broke into the...

Iraq cleric Sadr explains absence Moqtada Sadr has not been seen in public since giving a sermon in May The Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has explained why he has not been seen in public for more than nine months - and acknowledged splits in his movement.He said he missed his followers "too much" but that every "commander needed to be away for a while to worship". He has reportedly resumed his religious studies to gain the title of ayatollah. The statement comes two weeks after the cleric renewed a unilateral ceasefire his powerful Mehdi Army militia has been observing...

BAGHDAD - Iraq's elusive Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has decided to drop out of politics for the time being because his disillusionment with the political scene in Iraq has left him sick and anxious, he said in an unusually personal letter to his followers released Friday. In a written response to a query from a group of followers asking why he hadn't been seen in public for so long, Sadr said he had decided to devote himself to a period of study, reflection and prayer after failing in his core mission to rid Iraq of the U.S. occupation or to...

Teheran lunatic the presence of Moqtada Sadr in Iran TEHERAN - the spokesman of the Iranian ministry of the Foreign Affairs, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, contradicted the presence of the chief Iraqi radical Shiite Moqtada Sadr in Iran, reported Sunday the Isna agency. “Moqtada Sadr is not in Iran”, declared Mr. Hosseini. It is the first time that Iran lunatic officially the presence of Mr. Sadr on her ground. “That belonged to propaganda and the psychological warfare carried out by the United States in Iraq to more make pressure on Iran and it is without base”, declared Mr. Hosseini. Thursday,...

A representative of Shiite firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr was found shot dead in his car on Sunday morning in the southeast Baghdad neighborhood of Zayouna, said source in the defense ministry. Sheikh Abdel Salam Abdel Hussein al-Maliki, who was Sadr's representative in the southern neighborhood of Al-Shaab, was killed amid a spate of assassinations of religious political leaders across the country, in the run-up to Iraq's December 15 parliamentary elections. Sadr, who has massive support among poor and disaffected Shiites in Baghdad slums, as well as across the south, has become a major powerbroker in Iraq. US forces also...

Moqtada Sadr calls with calms after violences interchiites NAJAF (Iraq) - the radical chief Moqtada Sadr Shiite called Thursday with Najaf his partisans with calms after violences which set ablaze the south of the country and Baghdad on bottom of competition with the party Shiite of the supreme Council of the Islamic revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). "I call believing them to preserve the blood of the Moslems and to remain on their premises", declared Mr. Sadr with the press, while addressing to his partisans. Two people have be killed and 15 others wounded in violences implying of partisans of...

Najaf, Iraq, Sep. 6 (UPI) -- Residents of Najaf, Iraq took to the streets Monday calling on radical cleric Moqtada Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia to leave the holy Shiite city. Witnesses said protesters chanted anti-Sadr slogans screaming "take you hands off the city, the people of Najaf do not want you." The protest, the second of its kind in two days,

BAGHDAD (AFP) - More than 1,200 militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr surrendered following fierce clashes with US and Iraqi forces in Najaf, the police general directorate said. "Over 1,200 criminals have surrendered to Iraqi forces," it said in a statement, adding that the holy city of Najaf had been "secured." It said most of the captured militiamen were criminals who were released from Iraqi prisons by ousted president Saddam Hussein before last year's US-led invasion. The statement accused Sadr's Mehdi Army of wanting to "destablise the country," and vowed "this operation will continue until this illegal and...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The movement of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr announced its refusal to take part in a national conference lined up for July to select an advisory body for Iraq's interim government. "We reject the invitation," close Sadr aide Sheikh Ahmed Shaibani told AFP. "We have examined the invitation over the past three days and reached the conclusion that it does not take into account enough the importance of our movement," he said. On Monday, the chief organiser for the conference said that nobody had yet been officially invited, contradicting an earlier announcement that the firebrand cleric had...

FOLLOWERS of the radical Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr took over the governor's office in the British-controlled port city of Basra today. Dozens of armed Mehdi Army militiamen stormed the governor's office in the southern city at dawn, raising a green flag on the roof of the building, he said. Mehdi Army militiamen were seen deployed inside and on the rooftop of the governor's office alongside policemen who had been inside the building when it was overtaken. Four hours later there were no British troops in the area. On Sunday, Sadr supporters seized a number of police stations and...

Shootings of the forces of the coalition on the demonstrators Shiites The forces of the coalition opened fire Sunday on thousands of partisans of the head radical Shiite Moqtada Sadr who moved towards the Spanish base of the multinational force, located at 5 km of the Holy City of Najaf, noted a journalist of the AFP. "It has there shootings, shootings one the demonstrators and people run in all the directions to hide", affirmed the journalist, who saw five people lying per ground.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A deputy of a firebrand Shiite leader has been arrested Iraq in connection with the killing of two US soldiers, US military deputy director for operations Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said. "Coalition forces in Baghdad conducted a joint raid with the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps and detained Amar al-Yasseri, operations director of Moqtada Sadr in Sadr City, also believed to have been behind the ambush of coalition troops on October 9," the general told a Baghdad press conference Wednesday. Yasseri was captured in the sprawling Shiite quarter without incident, Kimmitt added. The two soldiers died on October...

In the breaking news window at Haaretz: Radical Iraqi Shi`ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr calls on his armed followers to capture Saddam Hussein `dead or alive`

KARBALA, Iraq, Oct. 14 -- Rival Shiite Muslim groups exchanged gunfire overnight in this Shiite holy city, the first serious armed clash between Shiite factions since the Iraq war, and the top U.S. commander in Iraq warned Tuesday that American forces may soon have to move against one of the factions. Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez said armed followers of Moqtada Sadr, a young Shiite cleric who has loudly opposed the presence of foreign troops in Iraq, have been regarded for months as an evolving threat to U.S.-led forces. Last week, in what American commanders described as an ambush, Sadr's...