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THEY called it “Spectre baiting”. Sergeant Craig Brodie, 33, sensed his men’s nervousness in the grim little joke as their Warrior armoured vehicle crawled down a darkened street in the southern Iraqi city of Amara. They were keyed up for action and concentrating for all they were worth.Lurking in the shadows ahead was a group of rebel gunmen from the Mahdi army of Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shi’ite cleric. Brodie’s job was to lure them into the open so an AC-130 Spectre gunship overhead could destroy them with its cannons and howitzers. The rebels would show themselves only if they...

COALITION forces made a historic breakthrough in their campaign to quell the bloody unrest in Iraq last night, when one of the most powerful militias in the country announced they would begin handing over their deadly arsenal of weapons tomorrow.Shi’ite insurgents, led by the rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, confirmed they had reached a ceasefire deal with US forces following lengthy peace negotiations with American officials and the interim Iraqi government. The fighters will start disarming within hours, in return for a US pledge to cease their bombardment of the Sadr City district of Baghdad, where the fiercely anti-American al-Sadr and...

It's peace but the dead are everywhere Luke Harding in Najaf Saturday August 28, 2004 The Guardian In an alleyway next to Najaf's Imam Ali shrine, Commander Sayed Haider rested yesterday. For more than three weeks he and his fellow fighters from the Mahdi army had battled against the vast firepower of the US military. Now was a time to reflect. "We believe that we are right. This is our country. This is our city. We will not accept that people come and occupy our land," he said. Nearby, fighters were lugging the corpse of a dead comrade out from...

Mahdi army flees shrine as US steps up offensive Luke Harding in NajafWednesday August 25, 2004 The Guardian (UK) Mahdi army fighters loyal to the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had largely abandoned Najaf's Imam Ali shrine yesterday before American forces launched a massive offensive, which was under way last night. Sources inside the resistance movement said the majority of the militiamen slipped out of the complex after a secret order by Mr Sadr five days ago. The cleric was no longer in the area immediately around the shrine, which was encircled by American tanks, they said. "He is 100% not...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Just three weeks after rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's forces blew off his legs with a homemade bomb, Capt. Saeed Majeed returned to duty to set an example for the men he commands at an Iraqi national guard station in one of the deadliest districts in Baghdad. After American allies accidentally killed two popular Iraqi platoon leaders in a fight with al-Sadr's militia, it was Majeed who persuaded his troops to end their strike over the incident. And it was Majeed who consoled his outgunned and outsmarted men after a 20-year-old guardsman died recently in yet another...

Child soldiers square up to US tanks (Filed: 23/08/2004) Boys who would be martyrs talk to Toby Harnden at the Imam Ali Shrine, Najaf Struggling to lift a Kalashnikov, a 12-year-old with the Mahdi army militia said he could do anything in battle except fly a helicopter. "Last night I fired a rocket-propelled grenade against a tank," he said. "The Americans are weak. They fight for money and status and squeal like pigs when they die. "But we will kill the unbelievers because faith is the most powerful weapon." The boy called himself Moqtada, styled after the rebel cleric whose...

AFTER a week of clashes in Iraq’s holiest city, aides of Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr appeared to have opened indirect negotiations yesterday that would end the fighting in Najaf in exchange for a political role for the Shia leader, who was said to have been wounded in exchanges of gunfire overnight.Officials of his al-Mahdi Army were holding talks with Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, the security adviser to Iyad Allawi, the interim Prime Minister. Hinting at the issues at stake — surrender of the city’s holy shrine area in return for a political future for Hojatoleslam al-Sadr — the cleric’s chief aide issued nine...

An al-Sadr militiaman in a bandana symbolising martydom. Moqtada al-Sadr's supporters want the Shia-dominated south to break from the centre and north. Photo: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images BRITISH troops backed by helicopters and warplanes killed ten Shia militiamen in al-Amarah in southern Iraq in one of the largest offensives yet by the British against the Mahdi Army, which is led by the renegade cleric Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr.The coalition and Iraqi troops conducted the attacks on Tuesday night, hitting positions taken up by the rebels in the tribal town 230 miles southeast of Baghdad after a constant stream of attacks by...

The two young men sitting cross-legged in a small room off the courtyard of the Imam Ali shrine looked like any of the fighters around them. Their beards were short and neat, their feet bare and their dress the simple dishdasha, the Arab robe. They were deferential to their militia commander and spoke idealistically of defeating the military might of America in Iraq's holy city of Najaf. But both were from London, the first Britons known to have joined the Mahdi Army, one of the main fighting groups in the Islamic insurgency that has gripped Iraq since the invasion. Though...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr declared Monday that he would fight to his death, heightening tension in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq, where U.S. tanks have crept closer to the shrine where al-Sadr and his men appear to be based. "I will stay until the last drop of my life," he said, speaking in an office at the Imam Ali shrine, the holiest site in Shiite Islam. "This is a resistance." Since fighting began in Najaf last Thursday, 465 Iraqis have been killed and 535 wounded, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health. The majority of...

A first-hand account by the only Western reporter in Najaf as major fighting broke out this week. NAJAF, IRAQ — Last week, staff writer Scott Baldauf, an Iraqi interpreter, and freelance photographer Kael Alford traveled from Baghdad to the central Iraqi city of Najaf intending to write about growing tension between the Iraqi government and the Shiite militia (Mahdi Army) of Moqtada al-Sadr, an anti-American cleric. When they arrived fighting was already underway, and has continued for three days now. One American military spokesman called it the heaviest fighting since the fall of Saddam Hussein. To their surprise, they were...

Julius Strauss meets the Mahdi army as it takes on American forces in and around the Shia holy city of Najaf A hundred yards to the north stretched the Wadi al-Salam, the Valley of Peace, the largest Shia cemetery in the world. Less than a mile to the west lay an American base, manned by the 1st Armoured Division, probably the most dangerous posting in Iraq. At the intersection just below, a dozen young fighters crouched behind a high stone wall. Just before noon, the fighting began in earnest. It was ushered in by a burst of sustained rifle fire...

20 of Sadr's Mahdi army die in battle at mosque By Oliver Poole in Baghdad (Filed: 13/05/2004) Fighting raged in the Iraqi holy city of Karbala yesterday, partly destroying a mosque and leaving bodies scattered around the market, as American soldiers killed at least 20 gunmen loyal to the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The battle emphasised the determination of the US military to end a five-week Shia uprising. Moqtada al-Sadr: 'America's presence in Iraq is not peace' Hundreds of troops moved in just before dawn after members of Sadr's Mahdi army who were gathered around the Mukhaiyam mosque began to...

<p>May 11, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - U.S. aircraft destroyed a Baghdad headquarters of renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr yesterday, sparking vows of revenge attacks against U.S. troops. U.S. forces led by the Army's 1st Cavalry Division used helicopters and Bradley fighting vehicles to flatten one of al-Sadr's two main offices in the slum of Sadr City that commanders said was being used by the gunmen to store ammunition and stage attacks.</p>

From Basra to Amarah, violence has increased between coalition and the radical Shiite's forces. BAGHDAD – Even as US-led forces in Iraq made progress against loyalists of militant Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr over the weekend, the insurgency spread from the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala to British-controlled cities of Basra and Amarah in the south. Analysts say the escalation is evidence that coalition military efforts are squeezing Sadr's Mahdi army, forcing them to fight elsewhere. But at the same time, Sadr - whom the US has vowed to "capture or kill" - is capitalizing on the horror over the...

Shia militiamen killed in clash with British troops By Fakher Haider in Basra and Philip Sherwell (Filed: 09/05/2004) Shia gunmen clashed with British troops in Basra yesterday, ordering locals to stay at home as the rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr attempted to open a new front against Coalition forces. Three British soldiers were wounded and two militiamen killed as hundreds of his Mahdi army fighters launched a series of orchestrated hit-and-run attacks, apparently aimed at taking over much of Iraq's second city. Shi'ite militiamen loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr carry the coffin of a Mehdi militiaman. Bursts of gunfire and explosions...

The dark blue Volvo sped toward the guard post near Najaf's Safi al-Safa shrine just as the muezzin began his evening call to prayers. Inside the car, three gunmen prepared to fire. Their targets were members of the Mahdi Army, a band of militants loyal to the firebrand Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has holed up in Najaf for the past month to avoid capture by the 2,500 U.S. soldiers surrounding the city. As the Volvo neared the tiny brick-and-reed building, a gunman in the car opened up with his AK-47, hitting one of al-Sadr's men. Mahdi Army members say...

Most of today's accounts of events in Fallujah have given the impression of a beaten Marine Corps in retreat, barely pausing to hand over power to a Saddam-era general as it scuttles to safety. This report by the Boston Globe is more subdued than most: Covering their faces with checkered headscarves, militiamen loyal to a former Iraqi Army general jubilantly took to the streets of this battle-scarred city yesterday to celebrate what they called a triumph over withdrawing US Marines. ... "We won," said one of the militiamen, a former soldier who gave his name only as Abu Abdullah. "We...

KUFA, Iraq (AP) - Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told worshippers at Friday prayers that he will not accept calls to tone down his anti-American rhetoric, adding that "America is the enemy of Islam and Muslims, and jihad is the path of my ancestors." Al-Sadr made the speech at a mosque in Kufa, a stronghold of his Al-Mahdi army. U.S. forces have surrounded Najaf, where al-Sadr is based. Tribal leaders and police are holding intensive talks in the city aimed at reducing tensions and preventing an American assault on the city, which is home to one of the shrines holiest to...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi forces took over positions from withdrawing Marines and raised the Iraqi flag at the entrance to Fallujah on Friday under a plan to end the monthlong siege of the city and shift security responsibilities to Iraqis led by a former general who served under Saddam Hussein. Moves to end the siege, which drew strong criticism internationally and from America's Iraqi allies, began despite a suicide car bombing that killed two Marines and wounded six at a garrison on the outskirts of the city. U.S. officials provided no further details on the attack. Negotiations were also...