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BAGHDAD — When bells ring for a return to schools throughout the Sadr City district of Baghdad later this month, students at 38 schools throughout the area are in for a big surprise. Following the end of hostilities in Baghdad’s most densely populated district, nearly all the 38 schools located in Task Force Gold’s operational environment were selected for repair and refurbishment by the Soldiers of the 926th Engineer Brigade. “The youth of Sadr City represent the future,” said Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Talley, commander of the 926th Eng. Bde., in speaking about the importance of the project. “They are the...

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq, Sept. 5, 2008 – When bells ring for a return to schools throughout Baghdad’s Sadr City district later this month, students at schools renovated by Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers are in for a big surprise. Local contractors in Baghdad’s Sadr City district work on refurbishing the Thatt Al Salasel School, Sept. 3, 2008. Multinational Division Baghdad spearheaded the renovation of 38 schools throughout the area. U.S. Army photo   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Following the end of hostilities in Baghdad’s most densely populated district, nearly all of the 38 schools in Task Force Gold’s...

BAGHDAD — It was a grand opening without any grandeur. No ribbons were cut, and no speeches were given. But an Iraqi Assistance Center (IAC) opened Sept. 1 in Baghdad’s Sadr City district nonetheless. The center, housed in a trailer near the Sadr City District Advisory Council building, is where Iraqi citizens go to file damage and condolence claims for losses suffered due to combat between Coalition forces and enemy elements in this northeastern Baghdad district. The second client for the IAC at its new location was a father seeking help for his son. The father was going over documents...

Patients walk past Iraqi Soldiers providing security from the 11th Iraqi Army Division, Aug. 20, 2008, during the combined medical engagement conducted in Sadr City. Photo by Sgt. Philip Klein, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division Public Affairs. BAGHDAD — When much needed health care is provided to citizens, it’s a welcome gift. The gift is even more welcome when Iraqi citizens see their own Soldiers taking the lead to help them. The 11th Iraqi Army (IA) Division delivered medical supplies and provided treatment to the citizens of the Thawra 1 neighborhood of the Sadr City District of Baghdad,...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2008 – From Mosul in the north to Basra in the south, insurgent-committed violence in Iraq continues to decrease as stability visibly increases, a senior U.S. military officer posted in Iraq said today. Video “For 10 of the last 11 weeks, we’ve sustained less than 200 attacks per week nationwide,” Army Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, told Pentagon reporters during a satellite-carried news conference from his Baghdad headquarters. Attacks in Iraq had once reached more than 1,500 a week a few years ago during the zenith of insurgent-committed violence. “It...

Iraqi Army Soldiers with the 3rd Battalion, 42nd Brigade, 11th Iraqi Army Division, sort through a large cache discovered in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, Aug. 14, 2008, after a resident informed the unit of its location. Photo by Sgt. Zachary Mott. PATROL BASE COMANCHE — In the three months since the Iraqi Army began patrolling inside the Sadr City district of Baghdad, the Soldiers conducting these patrols have worked hard to cultivate a relationship with the people there. Constant patrols, handing out food and water as well as providing medical services have helped advance this new relationship. In...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 14, 2008 – Coalition and Iraqi forces killed an enemy fighter, detained 10 suspected terrorists and found weapons during recent operations throughout Baghdad, military officials said. Coalition troops killed one man and detained five others allegedly connected to al-Qaida. The individuals are believed to be involved in assassinations, bombings and financial conspiracies for the group against coalition and Iraqi forces. Various weapons were confiscated during the operation, officials said. In operations yesterday: -- Iraqi soldiers captured four suspected terrorists who allegedly attacked coalition forces in the city’s Rashid district. The individuals ambushed the U.S. police training team with...

Sgt. Frank Lugo leads a double life. In the United States, he was a successful hedge fund trader with condos in New York and South Beach, Fla. Now he is in an unlikely spot -- Iraq, where he lives in the sprawling slum of Sadr City. "My lifestyle's obviously drastically different back home than it is here," Lugo said. "But there are things that can't be replicated back home that are here. This belief that we're trying to accomplish something that's greater than oneself." Lugo is an Army reservist. At 36, he has re-enlisted four times, swapping fast cars and...

BAGHDAD, July 7, 2008 – The U.S. military’s top-ranking officer encountered one of Iraq’s most dangerous areas today and saw first-hand the improvements Iraqi and U.S. forces have made during recent months. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, received a glimpse of the success that has seen attack levels in Iraq fall to their lowest in four years -- a 90 percent decline in attacks during the past year alone. The progress in security has allowed coalition forces to focus more on other issues, military officials in Baghdad said. Less than 60 days ago, the...

TRUST "U.S. Army Task Force Regulators 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment Staff Sgt. Fred Hampton, of Lexington, Ky., kneels on a knee to talk with a young Iraqi boy at the future site of Regular 6 Park in the Thawra 1 section of the Sadr City District of Baghdad on June 20." Photo: Tech Sgt. Cohen Young, Joint Combat Camera Center Iraq. "In Sadr City. There are no words to express everything conveyed by this photo. To me, it represents the highest ideals of our country and our guys, and the hopes and aspirations of the Iraqi people. This is...

Picture worth a thousand words By Michelle Malkin  •  July 1, 2008 04:02 PM Here.

WASHINGTON, June 26, 2008 – Coalition and Iraqi forces killed three militants, detained 20 suspects and found weapons in Iraq over the past three days, military officials said. During operations today: -- Coalition forces killed two enemy fighters, including an al-Qaida in Iraq cell leader, near Sharqat, about 55 miles south of Mosul. Military officials said forces engaged the men after perceiving them as a “hostile threat.” The slain enemies later were found to have been armed with guns and grenades. Troops detained three suspects in the operation. -- Coalition troops followed an alleged associate of al-Qaida in Iraq senior...

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2008 – U.S. and Iraqi forces discovered and confiscated weapons caches and captured insurgents during ongoing operations over the past several days in Iraq. In Baghdad today, Iraqi police seized an explosively formed projectile and several machine-gun rounds during operations in the New Baghdad district. In another operation, police uncovered a weapons cache in New Baghdad consisting of mortar rounds, a rocket, an artillery round, a number of machine-gun rounds, a mortar base plate, a telescopic sight, explosives, a night vision device and a rocket sled. Iraqi soldiers later confiscated several AK-47 rifles, two magazines and a...

BAGHDAD – Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers seized multiple weapons caches throughout Baghdad June 9-10. At approximately midnight June 9, Iraqi Army soldiers with the 22nd Brigade, 6th IA Division, discovered a cache in the Kadamiya district of Baghdad based off the tip of an area citizen. The cache consisted of a light anti-armor weapon rocket, communication devices, two sets of body armor, four PKC barrels, communication wire, a rocket propelled grenade anti-personnel warhead, small-arms ammunition, five boxes of 5.56 mm rounds and various grenades. They also confiscated three vehicles and one moped. Extra fuel tanks...

TIKRIT, Iraq – Iraqi Army soldiers with the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, uncovered several weapons caches in Sadr City, Baghdad, June 7. The soldiers seized a weapons cache at approximately 5:30 a.m. consisting of an explosively formed projectile, a 155 mm artillery round, an improvised-explosive device, explosive wire, two anti-tank rockets and an anti-aircraft rocket. At approximately 5:45 a.m., soldiers in the same unit discovered two more caches, the first of which consisted of two 60 mm mortar rounds, three machine guns, four Russian sniper rifles, five AK-47 magazines and 200 AK-47 rounds. The second cache consisted of a rocket...

BAGHDAD – Iraqi Army soldiers seized multiple weapons caches in Sadr City June 6. The IA soldiers with the 3rd Brigade, 1st IA Division discovered 15 AK-47s, 200 AK-47 rounds, two Berno rifles, a damaged rocket launcher, 14 fake identification cards, three license plates and an 8 mm video tape at approximately 6 a.m. At approximately 8:15 a.m., the soldiers seized a sniper rifle, an AK-47, 100 PKC rounds, five rocket-propelled grenade propellants and a Baghdad protection badge. Iraqi soldiers from the 68th Brigade, 11th IA Division seized 25 82 mm mortar rounds, 19 artillery rounds, six 60 mm mortar...

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2008 – Coalition forces in Iraq captured an alleged leader and a suspected primary weapons smuggler and financier for Iranian-backed enemy fighters today. Acting on intelligence information, coalition forces conducted a raid on the home of the suspected “special groups” leader in Mahawil, south of Baghdad. He surrendered without incident. In a separate operation east of Kut, intelligence tips helped coalition forces track down the hideout of a suspected special groups member who sources allege is the primary weapons smuggler and financier for Iranian-backed enemy elements in that area. The suspect and an associate surrendered when coalition...

The hundreds of drones cruising over Iraq and Afghanistan have changed war forever."The whole art of war consists of getting at what is on the other side of the hill," said the Duke of Wellington, conqueror of Napoleon at Waterloo. In the murky kind of fight that marks modern warfare against terrorists and guerrillas, knowing what's on the other side of the hill—or inside a building—takes on a whole new urgency and meaning. Lt. Col. Scott Williams, who leads a unit of Apache helicopters in Baghdad, is in the business of "servicing" targets, by which he means anything from blowing...

Don't look now, but the U.S.-backed government and army may be winning the war.[From the Washington Post!] THERE'S BEEN a relative lull in news coverage and debate about Iraq in recent weeks -- which is odd, because May could turn out to have been one of the most important months of the war. While Washington's attention has been fixed elsewhere, military analysts have watched with astonishment as the Iraqi government and army have gained control for the first time of the port city of Basra and the sprawling Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, routing the Shiite militias that have ruled...

BAGHDAD – Coalition forces struck a blow against a Special Groups criminal ring when they captured a key suspect Saturday in the Rusafa district of Baghdad. Intelligence sources led Coalition forces to the residence of the suspect who is believed to be a key assistant to a senior Iranian-trained Special Groups leader who recently fled Sadr City under pressure from Iraqi Security Forces. Intelligence shows that as Iraqi Security or Coalition forces come close to capturing senior Special Groups leaders, the criminals flee and hide until the situation calms. “Most of the senior Special Groups leadership have fled Sadr City...

Victor Davis Hanson, a former classics professor, is a renowned conservative scholar of ancient history and military affairs who's recently become a nationally syndicated columnist and blogger. The author of 17 books with titles like "A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War," "An Autumn of War" and "Mexifornia: A State of Becoming," he is the senior fellow in residence in classics and military history at the Hoover Institution on the Stanford University campus. Hanson, whose scholarship and interest in individual freedom recently earned him a 2008 Bradley Prize worth $250,000 from the Bradley...

BAGHDAD — Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers provided micro-grants to local shop owners in the Sadr City district of Baghdad to rebuild and expand their businesses as coalition forces continue to expand humanitarian operations May 26. Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division, attached to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, handed out the grants from the Civil Military Operations Center at Joint Security Station – Sadr City. The CMOC, operated by the 432nd Civil Affairs Battalion, MND-B, recently began supporting ground forces commanders in the Thawra 1 and Thawra 2 neighborhoods of Sadr City...

A common narrative about the war in Iraq is that fighting against the enemy in urban environments creates more insurgents, thus it is fruitless to even try. But today's Los Angeles Times finally asked Iraqis in Sadr City what they think about the recent fighting and how it impacts their views of the Mahdi Army. The answer: The Mahdi Army has lost significant support from not only residents caught in the crossfire, but from Mahdi Army fighters themselves. In fact, some Mahdi Army fighters were so discouraged by the recent fighting that they vowed to never join the ranks again....

Iraqi Army clashes with Mahdi Army in eastern Baghdad By Bill RoggioMay 28, 2008 4:01 PM Iraqi Special Operations Forces prepare for a mission near Amarah to disrupt weapons smuggling and trafficking from Iran and help to set the condition for broader stability in the region. (US Navy photo / Petty Officer 1st Class Daniel R. Mennuto) Iraqi and Coalition security forces continue to press operations against the Mahdi Army in Baghdad. Iraqi security forces clashed with the Mahdi Army in eastern Baghdad as raids against Mahdi Army weapons caches continue in Sadr city and throughout Baghdad. Iraqi security forces...

Al Qaeda web sites are making a lot of noise about "why we lost in Iraq." Western intelligence agencies are fascinated by the statistics being posted in several of these Arab language sites. Not the kind of stuff you read about in the Western media. According to al Qaeda, their collapse in Iraq was steep and catastrophic. According to their stats, in late 2006, al Qaeda was responsible for 60 percent of the terrorist attacks, and nearly all the ones that involved killing a lot of civilians. The rest of the violence was carried out by Iraqi Sunni Arab groups,...

Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia has provided services and protection to residents, but fighting in recent weeks has endangered their lives. BAGHDAD -- Four summers ago, when militiamen loyal to hard-line Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr were battling U.S. forces in the holy city of Najaf, Mohammed Lami was among them. "I had faith. I believed in something," Lami said of his days hoisting a gun for Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. "Now, I will never fight with them." Lami is no fan of U.S. troops, but after fleeing Baghdad's Sadr City district with his family last month, when militiamen arrived...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq – Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers detained numerous suspected criminals in the Bayaa community as a result of Operation Siegfried Line May 24 in southern Baghdad. At approximately 11:45 a.m. Soldiers from 1st BCT, 4th Inf. Div., MND-B, detained 40 suspected militants for questioning. Soldiers from 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, MND-B, detained a known criminal at 12:15 a.m. during an early morning operation in the Jihad community of southern Baghdad. “With the help of the Iraqi citizens, the Iraqi Security Forces and the 1st BCT ‘Raider’ Brigade, can rid the streets of...

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi Army Soldiers conducting operations in the Sadr City district of Baghdad during Operation Peace uncovered several weapons caches May 24 as they continue to secure the area to protect the local population. At approximately 7 a.m., Soldiers with the 4th Battalion, 34th Brigade, 9th IA Division, seized a 155 mm round, 10 rocket-propelled grenades, an AK-47 rifle, a Smirnov sniper rifle, 18 anti-aircraft rounds and nine 7.62 mm magazines. At approximately 9:30 a.m., IA Soldiers with the 2nd Bn., 34th Bde., 9th IA Div., discovered one explosively formed penetrator. Iraqi Army Soldiers with the 3rd Bn.,...

BAGHDAD - The U.S. ambassador to Iraq said Saturday that al-Qaida's network in the country has never been closer to defeat, and he praised Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for his moves to rein in Shiite and Sunni militant groups. Ryan Crocker's comments came as Iraqi forces have been conducting crackdowns on al-Qaida militants in the northern city of Mosul and on Shiite militiamen in the southern city of Basra. Thousands of Iraqi forces also moved into the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad last week imposing control for the first time in years. But truces with the powerful...

US Army Major Carter Price meets with Brigadier General Sameed, the commander of the 22nd Battalion, 6th Iraqi Army Division, at the Office of the Martyr Sadr in the Shula neighborhood of northern Gazaliyah in Baghdad on May 15, 2008. The Office of the Martyr Sadr build was taken over by the Iraqi army after the MAhdi Army used it to conduct and direct attacks. (US Army photo / Specialist Charles W. Gill) Less than one week after pushing into the northern two-thirds of Sadr City from the walled southern neighborhoods, the Iraqi Army is uncovering substantial weapons caches...

The Iraqi security forces have entered the northern regions of Sadr City on Tuesday. Dubbed Operation Salam, or Peace, thousands of Iraqi troops moved into the Mahdi Army stronghold just before dawn and took up positions at strategic points throughout Sadr City. "Operation Salam is going in accordance with well-planned and organized steps," Major General Qassem Atta told Voices of Iraq. Iraqi troops are tasked with securing the neighborhoods, arresting wanted individuals, and searching and seizing unlicensed weapons.

BAGHDAD - Lawmakers loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accused the Iraqi government of trying to crush the movement and warned Saturday of "black clouds" on the horizon for truces that have eased fighting between al-Sadr's militia and security forces. The Sadrist Movement has heightened its rhetoric against the government in recent days, raising concerns over the cease-fires in the southern city of Basra and Baghdad's Sadr City district, the stronghold of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. Still, the lawmakers and other al-Sadr officials said they are adhering to the truces. The cease-fires are crucial to Iraqi security forces' sweeps in...

“Why aren’t we hearing about this in the news?” asks Alisyn Camerota. Well, increasingly we are, most notably in the pages of the righty blogosphere’s favorite whipping boy. CNN traditionally has been good about reporting gains too, including having Yon himself on to explain them. As I write this, this story is beaming out to AP affiliates worldwide. The problem with the coverage is that it takes spectacular gains, like the Iraqi army rolling onto Mookie’s home turf in Sadr City, to break through the media narrative while even minor setbacks, which fit the narrative, are easily assimilated and thus...

Iraqi Forces Are Leading Operations in Three Iraqi Cities With Little U.S. Suppor As Gen. David Petraeus and Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee for confirmation hearings today, things are looking up in Iraq. An Iraqi soldier stands guard in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, on May 21,... Iraqi military spokesman said Tuesday that Iraqi troops have moved into Baghdad's Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City to seize control. The mural shows late father of the radical anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, right, and Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr. (AP Photo/Karim...

There are some very naive and delusional liberals who still think the Iraq government victory over the Mahdi Army criminals is actually a victory for Sadr and his Sadrists movement.  But they are simply grasping at straws so they do not have to face how pathetically wrong they have been on the Maliki action itself, the war in Iraq and the war on terror generally.  The fact is the Sadrists and al-Sadr gave political cover for heinous crimes commited by the Mahdi Islamo Fascists as they raped and killed their fellow Muslims.  Once Basra and Sadr City were liberated it...

Arkan Hasnawi. Click the image to view wanted the Mahdi Army leaders in Baghdad. The US military killed a senior member of the Mahdi Army, according US and Mahdi Army sources. Arkan Hasnawi, a senior lieutenant of the Mahdi Army commander in Sadr City, was killed in a guided rocket strike in Sadr City on March 3. The news of Hasnawi's death comes as details emerge on the senior leadership of the Mahdi Army in Baghdad and the blurring of the lines between Sadr's militia and the Special Groups. Hasnawi was among several senior Mahdi Army leaders killed or...

BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces rolled unopposed through the huge Shiite enclave of Sadr City on Tuesday, a dramatic turnaround from the bitter fighting that has plagued the Baghdad neighborhood for two months, and a qualified success for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. As it did in the southern city of Basra last month, the Iraqi government advanced its goal of establishing sovereignty and curtailing the powers of the militias. This was a hopeful accomplishment, but one that came with caveats: In both cities, the militias eventually melted away in the face of Iraqi troops backed by American firepower. Thus nobody...

Some 10,000 Iraqi police and soldiers, backed by tanks, pushed deep into Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Baghdad bastion on Tuesday, stamping the government's authority on an area until now outside its control. The army said they met no resistance as they moved into Sadr City in the early hours, securing three quarters of the sprawling slum where hundreds have been killed in weeks of fighting between U.S. and Iraqi forces and Shi'ite militants loyal to Sadr. A truce 10 days ago between Shi'ite factions largely ended the fighting in one of Baghdad's poorest districts and paved the way for Tuesday's...

Sadr: Hides in Iran as his Iraq minions lose. May 20, 2008 -- DO we still have troops in Iraq? Is there still a conflict over there? If you rely on the so-called mainstream media, you may have difficulty answering those questions these days. As Iraqi and Coalition forces pile up one success after another, Iraq has magically vanished from the headlines. Want a real "inconvenient truth?" Progress in Iraq is powerful and accelerating. But that fact isn't helpful to elite media commissars and cadres determined to decide the presidential race over our heads. How dare our troops win? Even...

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraqi troops poured into Baghdad's Shiite bastion of Sadr City on Tuesday for the first time in eight weeks as militiamen who have been battling US forces held their fire in line with a truce deal.Large numbers of heavily-armed soldiers fanned out in Sadr City for the first time since the deadly fighting broke out between loyalists of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and US troops in late March.Security officials said they launched "Operation Peace" at dawn to clear the area where mines had been planted by Shiite militiamen in the teeming slum district of northeastern Baghdad.The Iraqi...

Excerpt - BAGHDAD, May 20 (Reuters) - Iraq's army moved on Tuesday to take control of Baghdad's Sadr City, power base of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, in another step to stamp government authority over areas previously outside its control. A spokesman for Iraqi security forces in Baghdad, Major-General Qassim Moussawi, said soldiers had launched "Operation Peace" in the sprawling eastern Baghdad slum early on Tuesday. Iraqi soldiers, who previously controlled only the outer perimeter of Sadr City, advanced deep into the poor suburb, home to 2 million people, without meeting any opposition, he said. "We are taking control of three-quarters...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Shiite militants and U.S.-backed Iraqi forces -- two sides that agreed to a cease-fire last week -- fought overnight in Sadr City, killing four people and wounding 38, Interior Ministry and hospital officials said Sunday. An Iraqi soldier checks a car for explosives at a checkpoint in Sadr City on Saturday. A spokesman for radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said the fighting does not mean an end to the newly negotiated peace agreement. Neither side agreed on what caused the fighting in the stronghold of al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia. Major Gen. Qassim Atta, a Baghdad security plan...

BAGHDAD – Local residents in the Sadr City district of Baghdad gathered for a peaceful prayer demonstration May 16. An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 people, some carrying Iraqi flags, joined together for a peaceful prayer meeting coordinated by the tribal leaders of Sadr City. One large group of people marched to the office of the Martyr Sadr Mosque for prayer service. The timing of the gathering corresponded with mosque services and the crowd dispersed at the end of prayer service. A second large group met peacefully near al-Habibiyah by al-Hamza Square and was organized by tribal leaders of Sadr City....

From the NY Times: Truce Holds in Sadr City Amid Iraqi Army Patrols by ALISSA J. RUBIN BAGHDAD — Iraqi Army troops moved a few blocks north of the fortified front line in Baghdad’s Sadr City district without incident on Saturday, signaling that a shaky truce with the cleric Moktada al-Sadr’s Shiite militia was holding. Let’s see if we can give them a hint. The Iraqi army is patrolling Sadr City. In Mosul, another Sadr stronghold, the Iraqi army is arresting wanted men. That’s what happens when the fighting is over; you start arresting people instead of shooting them. Members...

A soldier of the Iraqi army 42nd Brigade, 11th Iraqi army division, hands out water to young boys before they wait in line for medical care at an abandoned school in the southern portion of the Sadr City District of Baghdad on May 8. The Iraqi army handed out relief supplies and provided medical care in an effort to help the people in the district. More than 250 people showed up to receive free food and medical supplies. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Cohen Young. CAMP LIBERTY — Residents in Sadr City continue to receive humanitarian aid from...

BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki took personal charge Wednesday of a military operation to rout al-Qaida in Iraq in what the U.S. has described as the terror group's last major stronghold, even as a tenuous cease-fire took hold over Baghdad's Sadr City slum. The campaign in the northern city of Mosul was the third by al-Maliki in two months as he attempts to stamp out Shiite militants and Sunni extremists across the country. Also Wednesday, a suicide bomber killed 22 people and wounded 40 in an attack on a funeral tent in a village west of Baghdad, Iraqi police...

Mahdi Army fighters continue to attack US and Iraqi units as they work to complete the barrier along Qods Street in Sadr City. These attacks are occurring despite the truce agreed upon by the Sadrist political block and the Iraqi government. Iraqi and US forces said 10 Mahdi Army fighters during clashes in Sadr City and three more Mahdi fighters were killed elsewhere in Baghdad. Iraqi troops have also begun reinforcing the Shula neighborhood in Baghdad. The Iraqi military said it killed eight “gunmen” inside Sadr City over the past 24 hours. The US military said it killed two Mahdi...

ISTANBUL, Turkey; and BAGHDAD - Iran's role in helping broker a cease-fire in Baghdad's Sadr City may be the first sign that it is acting to fulfill recent promises to stop arming Iraq's militias and help stem their attacks. ADVERTISEMENT While the deal inked Monday was tested Tuesday as militants in Moqtada al-Sadr's Baghdad stronghold launched overnight attacks on US forces, Iraqi officials say that Iranian influence was key to reaching the deal with the anti-American cleric aimed at ending weeks of deadly fighting. Iran's intervention comes as previously undisclosed details are emerging of a secret meeting between Iraqi President...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An agreement aimed at ending fighting in the Baghdad bastion of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr appeared on the verge of collapse on Tuesday after gunmen attacked U.S. troops. The deal between the ruling Shi'ite alliance and Sadr's opposition movement in parliament to end fighting in the Sadr City slum district was formally signed on Monday. But with the ink barely dry on the 16-point pact, clashes flared overnight and through Tuesday, raising questions over how much control the anti-American cleric has over some of the Mehdi Army militiamen who profess allegiance to him. "It is clear...

BAGHDAD, (AP) -- Iraq's main Shiite political bloc and supporters of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr signed a fragile cease-fire in Baghdad's Sadr City on Monday, hoping to end seven weeks of fighting that has left hundreds dead. But the U.S. military has alleged that most Shiite extremists fighting Iraqi and U.S. forces in the teeming slum have splintered away from al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, and that the cleric's level of influence on those rogue groups is unclear. Many are thought to be trained and armed by Iranian forces. Iran denies the allegations. Al-Sadr's representatives and the rival United Iraqi Alliance agreed...