Free Republic

A series of truces agreed on last month, encompassing Mr Sadr's stronghold in al-Thoura, Baghdad's eastern slum, as well as the Shia holy cities and other towns further south, are still holding. His own home turf in the capital has been more peaceful than it has been for months. Former fighters are now being paid to collect rubbish, plant trees, direct traffic and help the Iraqi police. The new government has promised to pay for a new sewage system so that the slum detritus will no longer flow past Baghdad's grimmest tenements. Outside the city, the clergy behind Mr...

Iraqi Prime Minister Opens Controversial Newspaper Shut Down by Coalition By Tarek El-Tablawy/Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's interim prime minister issued a decree allowing a controversial newspaper to reopen after U.S. officials closed it in March, setting off months of fighting between U.S. forces and militants loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Meanwhile, after a two-month absence, al-Sadr showed up in Najaf in an unannounced visit to the Imam Ali shrine, one of Shiism's holiest sites. With all the pomp of a rock star, the mercurial cleric was ushered into the mosque as guards and aides cut...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq (news - web sites)'s interim prime minister issued a decree allowing a controversial newspaper to reopen after it had been closed by U.S. officials in March, setting off months of fighting between U.S. forces and militants loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The weekly Al-Hawza was the mouthpiece of al-Sadr's "Sadrist" movement, routinely carrying his fiery sermons on its front page along with articles sharply critical of the U.S.-led occupation, which formally ended June 28. Iraq's former American governor, L. Paul Bremer, ordered the newspaper closed for two months on March 28 for allegedly inciting...

As Iraq's most powerful Shiite clerics warned the U.S.-led coalition that it "must pay" for the current crisis in the country, the head of U.S. Central Command asked the Pentagon for roughly 10,000 more soldiers. In a statement issued Monday after a meeting with radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the clerics and members of the country's religious authority also cautioned the coalition against doing battle in the holy city of Najaf -- and warned against any attempt to kill al-Sadr.

WITH the United States planning to surrender political power to Iraqis by the end of June, Washington can little afford a new front in the increasingly violent battle to pacify the country. Closing al-Hawza, the weekly newspaper of the zealously anti-US Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, threatens to open one. Mr Sadr had faded in recent months while the spotlight was on leading moderate Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. In closing down Mr Sadr’s newspaper, the US has revived a fierce political opponent who is much more militant than Ayatollah Sistani. The cleric’s supporters are well-organised and led by young, motivated...

Parties, plunder, and prayer in liberated Baghdad Matthew Gutman May. 5, 2003 In Sadr City, the lawless and impoverished district in east Baghdad formerly known as Saddam City, the US has found a friend. The Shi'ite residents and their powerful clerics have thrown their support behind American troops, grateful that they rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein and hopeful that the US might drag them out of dire poverty. "We were the living dead under Saddam," said Said Fathen al-Yasser, a metal trader who specializes in pillaged Iraqi tank and artillery shells. "Now we are free. For the first time...