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By Khaled Farhan NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr sent his fighters home on Wednesday in what may mark the end of a 10-week revolt against U.S.-led forces that once engulfed southern Iraq (news - web sites) and Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines. With the formal end of U.S.-led occupation just two weeks away, Sadr issued a statement from his base in Najaf calling on his Mehdi Army militiamen to go home. "Each of the individuals of the Mehdi Army, the loyalists who made sacrifices...should return to their governorates to do their duty," the statement said. That call came...

New Iraqi Government Declares Militias Illegal Sadr, Lieutenants Banned From Public Office for 3 Years By Edward CodyWashington Post Foreign ServiceMonday, June 7, 2004; 2:00 PM BAGHDAD, June 7 -- The new Iraqi government and U.S. occupation authorities declared all militias illegal Monday and outlined a $200 million program to redirect their estimated 100,000 fighters into official security forces, civilian professions or retirement. The most immediate effect of the order, issued in the name of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, was to formally outlaw the Mehdi Army of Moqtada Sadr, the defiant Shiite Muslim cleric who has confronted U.S. occupation forces...

TEHRAN, June 4 (AFP) - Top Iranian hardline cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Janati on Friday accused the United States, Britain and Israel of "warring against God" and said their nationals should be made to feel unsafe wherever they are. "If the Muslims do not know security, the Americans, British and the Israelis should not know security, for they are "moharebs" (warring against God)," Janati said at Friday prayers in Tehran, broadcast by state media. "It is the duty of all Muslims and ardent non-Muslims to stand against the Americans, the British and the Israelis and to endanger their interests worldwide." His...

ERBALA, Iraq, May 24 (Reuters) - Iraqi jeweller Hamid Karawi did not conceal his joy on Monday as his water hose washed away the dried blood of a Mehdi Army fighter killed near his shop by U.S. tank fire during intense battles last week. "This is not resistance against the occupation. I cannot consider this fighter a martyr. I don't know what went through his mind in the last moment before his death," said Karawi, as he cleared broken glass two days after fighting had ended in an area near the Imam Hussein shrine. That Kerbala residents are debating whether...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US military estimates less than 1,000 members of the Mehdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr are fighting from their Baghdad stronghold, using women and children as human shields. "I don't think it's a thousand, it's probably not a hundred," Brigadier General Jeffrey Hammond, a deputy commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, told AFP about the size of the rebel cleric's army in the slum of Sadr City. In fact, Hammond was betting on bleeding Sadr's organisation dry even in the district named after his family following last year's downfall of president Saddam Hussein...

KARBALA, Iraq (AFP) - Residents of this Shiite Muslim shrine town sit around a hotel lobby cursing the militiamen of radical leader Moqtada Sadr as an influential cleric in the neighbouring holy city of Najaf tells them to leave. The US military appears to be succeeding in its goal of isolating Sadr and his Mehdi Army militiamen and slowly eroding any sympathy that residents of Karbala and Najaf might have felt towards the firebrand young cleric. People in both cities say they have had enough of the "thuggish presence" of Sadr's gunmen around their holy shrines and lament the impact...

NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr's uprising was dealt a pair of blows as the Shiite Muslim establishment in this holy city told them to return to their homes, while US troops killed 20 of his militiamen. Respected cleric Sheikh Sadreddin Kubbanji issued an unequivocal denunciation of Sadr's Mehdi Army in a sign that US political and military pressure could be bearing fruit and time may be running out on Sadr's month-long insurrection. "Listen to the advice of the learned ones. You are our beloved youth and we care about you, but go back to your home where...

AN Iraqi has died of his wounds after US troops beat him with truncheons because he refused to remove a picture of wanted Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada Sadr from his car, police said today. The motorist was stopped late yesterday by US troops conducting search operations on a street in the centre of the central city of Kut, Lieutenant Mohamad Abdel Abbas said. After the man refused to remove Sadr's picture from his car, the soldiers forced him out of the vehicle and started beating him with truncheons, he said. US troops also detained from the same area five men...

NASIRIYAH, Iraq (AFP) - Italian soldiers of the US-led coalition destroyed the office of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr in this southern Iraqi town, a day after Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi visited the contingent. Residents said the Italians used explosive charges to level the building at dawn in the wake of bloody clashes between Sadr's banned Mehdi Army militia and coalition forces. There was no immediate reaction from Sadr loyalists in the town where Italian soldiers have increased patrols. Berlusconi, a close Washington ally, spent several hours here on a surprise morale-boosting visit to his troops Saturday, telling them their...

KARBALA, Iraq (AFP) - A militia leader of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr declared a three-day truce for the Arbaeen religious commemoration in Karbala, as the US-led coalition warned thousands of pilgrims flocking there to be alert for terror attacks. "Military operations against Polish and Bulgarian forces stationed here will be ceased until Monday at midnight (2300 GMT)," Sheikh Hamza al-Tai, head of the Mehdi Army militia in the Iraqi holy city, told AFP. He said the ceasefire would hold as long as "occupation forces do not enter inside central Karbala and do not approach the holy sites and...

US vows to wipe out cleric's army Baghdad | April 08, 2004 6:02:40 PM IST The US military in Iraq has vowed to "destroy" the militia which backs a radical Shia cleric responsible for much of the latest wave of violence. US-led forces are already conducting operations against Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army, said a US military spokesman. More than 100 Iraqis have died in three days of clashes in areas to the west and south of the capital, Baghdad. About 20 coalition troops have also been killed, including 12 US marines in a single attack in the town of Ramadi....

Sadr's Mehdi militia backed from Tehran is at peak of spring offensive to capture Shiite town centers and drive out coalition forces.Numbers estimated at 10-12,000 men of which 3,000 are hard core.Since warrant published for his arrest, Sadr left his al Kura mosque and gone to ground.

NAJAF, Iraq - Followers of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr fought gun battles with foreign troops in Shi'ite Muslim strongholds on Tuesday and vowed to pursue their uprising until U.S.-led forces withdraw from Iraqi towns. U.S. troops have long faced daily attacks in the Sunni Muslim heartlands to the north and west of Baghdad, where heavy fighting was reported in the Sunni cities of Falluja and Ramadi. But the violence in Shi'ite Muslim areas represents a new front for occupying troops trying to pacify the country ahead of a June 30 handover of sovereignty to an Iraqi government. An American soldier...

US Apache helicopters sprayed fire on the private army of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr during fierce battles in the western Baghdad district of Al-Showla, witnesses and an AFP correspondent said. "Two Apaches opened fire on armed members of the Mehdi Army," said Showla resident Abbas Amid. The fighting erupted when five trucks of US soldiers and the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC) tried to enter the district and were attacked by Sadr supporters, Amid said. Coming under fire, the ICDC, a paramilitary force trained by the Americans, turned on the US soldiers and started to shoot at them, according...

Mideast - AFP Shiite bastion boils with anti-US anger after at least 57 killed 23 minutes ago Add Mideast - AFP to My Yahoo! BAGHDAD (AFP) - The Iraqi capital's biggest Shiite neighborhood seethed with rage after at least 57 residents were killed and 236 wounded in a US crackdown on militiamen loyal to radical leader Moqtada Sadr. AFP Photo   Tuesday, US tanks and Humvees stood guard at strategic positions, including police stations, in the sprawling slum district of Sadr City, which is home to more than two million people. US armored vehicles cruised the teeming streets, with...

An Iraqi judge has revived an arrest warrant for Muqtada al-Sadr, the "bad boy" of Iraq's Shiite leaders, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) announced April 5. The reissuing of the warrant comes after U.S. and coalition forces clashed with al-Sadr supporters in several cities. The revival of al-Sadr's militant activities raises concerns for U.S. forces, particularly as they try to deal with the recent outbreak of violence in the predominantly Sunni city of Al Fallujah. This is not the first time an arrest warrant has been mentioned by CPA officials following an outbreak of violent clashes with al-Sadr supporters. There...

NASSIRIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Radical Shi'ite militiamen fought gun battles with Italian troops in the southern town of Nassiriya on Tuesday and two civilians were killed, witnesses said. The violence was part of a surge of unrest led by Moqtada al-Sadr, a cleric fiercely opposed to the U.S.-led occupation. The fighting in Nassiriya erupted at about 4 a.m. (0000 GMT) and continued into the morning. Four Italian vehicles had been burned in the clashes in the Zeitoun district, witnesses said. Pro-Sadr fighters were still controlling the area, near the local headquarters of Iraq (news - web sites)'s Coalition Provisional...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. helicopter gunships opened fire as tanks rumbled through Baghdad's sprawling Shuala district Monday, but teenage militiamen with guns and knives were firmly in control when the clashes ended. Young boys jumped up and down on a U.S. military truck that had been attacked and set ablaze in a symbolic victory for radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose militiamen are challenging U.S. forces in several cities across Iraq. Sadr's Mehdi Army has said for months it is ready for holy war against the Americans if the order comes, and the militia displayed its zeal and organizational skills...

FOLLOWERS of the radical Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr took over the governor's office in the British-controlled port city of Basra today. Dozens of armed Mehdi Army militiamen stormed the governor's office in the southern city at dawn, raising a green flag on the roof of the building, he said. Mehdi Army militiamen were seen deployed inside and on the rooftop of the governor's office alongside policemen who had been inside the building when it was overtaken. Four hours later there were no British troops in the area. On Sunday, Sadr supporters seized a number of police stations and...