Free Republic

About 2,200 Marines are headed from their ships in the Persian Gulf to an undisclosed location in Iraq's western Anbar province to help shore up U.S. combat power in an area riddled with insurgent violence. The move, intended as a short-term measure, is evidence of the severity of the conflict in Anbar. The insurgency is entrenched and well-organized in a province where U.S. soldiers and Marines are being killed almost daily. Maj. Matt McLaughlin, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said Thursday that members of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit were "in the process of transitioning and moving" from their...

BAGHDAD, Nov 16 (Reuters) - The Iraqi government has issued an arrest warrant for the country's most prominent Sunni cleric, Harith al-Dari, state television Iraqiya said.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 27 - For several weeks, Iraq's most powerful politicians and foreign diplomats have been streaming like anxious pilgrims to western Baghdad, to the vast blue and gold dome of the Mother of All Battles mosque, which was commissioned by Saddam Hussein. They are there to visit Sheik Harith al-Dari, a 64-year-old cleric and tribal leader who has become a leading spokesman for Iraq's disaffected Sunni Arabs. Mr. Dari, a taciturn man with an air of cold authority, greets his guests in a dim office off the mosque's main hall, which is surrounded by a moat and tall...