Free Republic

Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr appears to be playing both agitator and mediator in the sudden surge of internecine fighting that broke out on 24 August between rival Shi'ite groups in Al-Najaf and subsequently spread to eight cities across Iraq. As al-Sadr publicly appealed for calm on 25 August, many began to question the apparent coordinated attacks that left the cleric's militia, the Imam Al-Mahdi Army, battling with police and militias supporting the two main Shi'ite political parties -- the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and the Islamic Al-Da'wah Party. Al-Sadr and his supporters were reportedly...

The inhabitants of the Al-Kafal town have found at least 30 bodies in a new mass grave left by the defunct Saddamist regime. Our correspondent quoted several of the town's inhabitants who said that some of the local people discovered the mass grave while transporting sand. Workers have started to dig up the bodies from the mass grave under the supervision of the religious authorities in holy Al-Najaf. Since the US-led invasion of Iraq and the toppling of the criminal Saddam government, mass graves that contain thousands of bodies have been found in areas where the majority of the inhabitants...