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Al-Zawra, the Iraqi Journalists Union newspaper, published "Who Kills Hostages in Iraq?" by Samir Addad and Mazin Ghazi on 19 September. A text in English has been released by BBC Monitoring International Reports. The article reports on the armed groups that are involved in violent resistance in Iraq, dividing the resistance into three categories: the Sunni resistance groups the Shi'i resistance groupsFactions abducting and killing.Below is an outline of the groups in these three categories: The main Sunni resistance groups The Iraqi National Islamic Resistance, "The 1920 Revolution Brigades" TARGETS: U.S. soldiersORIGIN: emerged on 16 July 2003GOAL: Expulsion of...

Shiite Neighborhood Rebuilds Headquarters BAGHDAD, Iraq - Residents of the Shiite neighborhood Sadr City on Tuesday began rebuilding the headquarters of a militant Shiite Muslim cleric which was destroyed in a tank and helicopter attack by U.S. forces. The building, used as a district headquarters by forces of Muqtada al-Sadr, was destroyed about midnight Sunday during clashes between U.S. troops and his al-Mahdi Army militia. At the urging of the al-Mahdi Army, local Shiites brought bricks, cement and gypsum to the site. Parts of the building had already been repaired by midday. "The city people pulled up their socks when...

NAJAF, Iraq - A radical Shiite cleric has pulled his militiamen out of police stations and government facilities in this holy city, partially meeting a U.S. demand for ending the standoff in southern Iraq (news - web sites), cleric's representative said Monday. Police on Monday were back on the streets and in their stations for the first time in days since the al-Mahdi Army militia of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took control of the facilities last week. "Al-Sayed al-Sadr issued instructions for his followers to leave the sites of police and the government," said lawyer Murtada al-Janabi, one of al-Sadr's...

Fallujah, Iraq - A U.S. AC-130 gunship raked Iraqi insurgents Friday night after hundreds of women and children fled the besieged city Fallujah during a U.S.-declared pause in the marine offensive. On the anniversary of the fall of captive Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's regime, Baghdad and parts of central Iraq were chaotic. At a square in the capital where Saddam's statue was toppled a year ago, soldiers took down a new icon: pictures of the radical Shiite Muslim cleric whose followers have risen up against coalition forces in the south. Gunmen running rampant on Baghdad's western edge attacked a fuel...

A militia loyal to radical Shi'a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr -- believed to number several thousand -- is battling coalition forces in Baghdad and other towns in Iraq. The Al-Mahdi Army was formed last summer, when al-Sadr said it would be a nonviolent force used primarily for security. That changed last weekend, however, when al-Sadr issued a call for his followers to "terrorize" the enemy. Prague, 8 April 2004 (RFE/RL) – On 4 April, Muhammad Abbas closed his small shop in Baghdad's Sha'ala district, bought a machine gun, and joined the Al-Mahdi Army of radical Shi'a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in...