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NAJAF, Iraq – Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on the Iraqi resistance Wednesday to stage "revenge operations" against American forces to protest Israel's Gaza offensive. The statement issued by his office in the Shiite holy city of Najaf came as criticism is mounting over civilian deaths in Gaza. The State Department dismissed al-Sadr's calls, describing them as "outrageous."

Shi'ite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr stepped back into Iraq's political fray Friday with an offer that (if genuine) Washington would be hard-pressed to refuse: Set a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, and the Mahdi Army will begin to disband. "The main reason for the armed resistance is the American military presence," said Sadr emissary Salah al-Ubaidi, who spoke to reporters in Najaf Friday. "If the American military begins to withdrawal, there will be no need for these armed groups." Sadr in the past has vowed to expand the humanitarian work of his movement but promised to maintain...

BAGHDAD - Warning sirens wail and within seconds rockets and mortars strike — sometimes one or two, other times 10 or more. The Green Zone is again a prime target as American and British diplomats, Iraqi politicians, contractors and others struggle to go about their business — always aware that any time they are outside the most fortified buildings there is a chance to be injured or killed. The danger has temporarily reshaped life: Green Zone traffic is minimal, few people venture out on the streets and security precautions — always high — have been boosted. Many diplomats and others...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The political movement loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr quit Iraq's ruling Shi'ite Alliance on Saturday, leaving Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition in a precarious position in parliament. The move further weakens the ruling coalition, which even before the defection had failed to push through laws aimed at reconciling Iraq's warring majority Shi'ite and minority Sunni Arabs. Maliki's government now enjoys the support of only about half of Iraq's 275 lawmakers, although it could survive with the support of a handful of independent lawmakers. "The political committee has declared the withdrawal of the Sadr bloc from the...

BAGHDAD - A Muslim imam dropped his cloak to the sidewalk. It was a signal for the gunmen to move. They surrounded the top Iraqi security official in a north Baghdad district. Iraqi military vehicles — commandeered by other Shiite militiamen — screeched into a cordon, blocking his exit. A gun was put to his head. Brig. Gen. Falah Hassan Kanbar, a fellow Shiite, managed to escape when his bodyguards pulled him into a vehicle that sped down an alley. Details of the Aug. 5 ambush emerged this week in interviews with Kanbar, U.S. military and intelligence officials. It remains...

BAGHDAD - A day after radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr resurfaced to end nearly four months in hiding and demand U.S. troops leave Iraq, American forces raided his Sadr City stronghold and killed five suspected militia fighters in air strikes Saturday. U.S. and Iraqi forces called in the air strikes after a raid in which they captured a "suspected terrorist cell leader," the U.S. military said in statement. The statement claimed the captured man was "the suspected leader in a secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bomber struck a police checkpoint Wednesday in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, killing at 13 people in the spiritual heartland of the militia factions led by radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. U.S. forces, meanwhile, investigated the "hard landing" of a Black Hawk helicopter north of Baghdad. Military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the airmen were picked up by rescuers, but gave no further details. At least seven U.S. helicopters have crashed or been forced down by hostile fire in the past month, killing 28 troops and civilians. Meanwhile, Britain outlined its plan to...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Their rhetoric is still stridently anti-American, but Mahdi Army militiamen are tucking away their weapons and blending into civilian life. Their leaders are keeping out of sight. In the streets of Sadr City, the strategy of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite militia leader, is clear: Lie low, avoid a showdown and hope to emerge even stronger after the Americans leave. Gathered for prayers this week, at least 10,000 al-Sadr supporters raised clenched fists and chanted "No, No to America." Later, a black-turbaned cleric addressed them, dressed in a white shroud to signal readiness for martyrdom. "They claim that...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Major partners in Iraq's governing coalition are in behind-the-scenes talks to oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki amid discontent over his failure to quell raging violence, according to lawmakers involved. The talks are aimed at forming a new parliamentary bloc that would seek to replace the current government and that would likely exclude supporters of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is a vehement opponent of the U.S. military presence. The new alliance would be led by senior Shiite politician Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who met with President Bush last week. Al-Hakim, however, was not expected to be the...

The Iraq Study Group says the private army of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr could be 60-thousand fighters strong. Al-Sadr's Mahdi army is one of the concerns highlighted in the Iraq Study Group's report, released yesterday. It's one of many factions undermining U-S efforts to help Iraq's democracy gain control. The study group says many of al-Sadr's followers are planted throughout the security forces that protect Iraqi government institutions. And more worrisome than their numbers, which stood at ten-thousand in 2005, is al-Sadr's organizational ability. One terrorism expert says cell phones, Internet communications and other technology gives the Mahdi army an...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's health minister, who is aligned to a powerful Shiite militia, claimed Sunday that U.S. forces arrested seven of his personal guards in a surprise pre-dawn raid on his office. The reason for the alleged arrests was unclear. Health minister Ali al-Shemari said the soldiers arrived at 3 a.m. Sunday, broke open doors inside the building leading to his office and hauled away the seven men, who were posted there as night guards. U.S. officials did not immediately respond to the claim. "There was no legal warrant, there was no prior warning to the ministry, there was...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi forces strike the Baghdad base of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — but his gunmen hold their fire. U.S. soldiers kill 15 of al-Sadr's followers, drawing little more than a few perfunctory complaints. That's a dramatic departure in style for the youthful firebrand, who launched two major uprisings against the American-led coalition two years ago when U.S. authorities closed his newspaper and pushed an Iraqi judge into issuing an arrest warrant against him. If anything, al-Sadr is more powerful today than he was then. But that power is also a restraint: al-Sadr has more...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - As a car enters the Shiite district of Sadr City, a group of men step from the curb and flag down the vehicle. "Who are you and where are you going?" one of them demands. All is well after passengers produce papers, not from the government but from the office of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. "We are sorry," one man says. "May God be with you." Al-Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army, keeps a sharp eye out for strangers in the teeming Baghdad district, home to 2.5 million people, as well as other Shiite areas across the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sunni groups complained Saturday that one of their top religious leaders was detained by American troops in Tikrit for several hours, while the U.S. military said three soldiers from the same division were killed in separate incidents. The deaths of the three soldiers from the Multi-National Division in Baghdad raised to 15 the number of U.S. servicemembers who were killed or were found dead this past week. One soldier was killed Saturday and the other two Friday. A soldier was killed Saturday by a bomb during a foot patrol south of Baghdad. On Friday, one soldier was...

...in clashes with U.S. military in Baghdad, Iraqi police say. http://www.cnn.com/

Tuesday, September 20, 2005 Zarqawi let goes part of his pride and retracts part of his the threats against Iraqis (especially the Sheat). Al-Arabiya TV reported that Al-Qaeda in Iraq-through the same website they used to declare war on Sheat-has excluded a few Sheat groups from the hit list and this-in my opinion- proves that Al-Qaeda's war is political in nature and not religious at all. This war is targeting anyone and anything that can move the democratic process forward as we said in a previous post. The updated announcement excluded Sheat groups led by: 1-Mahmood Al-Hasani (a firebrand cleric...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Arguably Iraq's most popular Shiite group, followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have packed away their guns and now speak of "political resistance" rather than martyrdom in battle. Once dismissed as an upstart, the portly al-Sadr has been transformed into a respectable political figure, commanding the loyalty of key lawmakers and several Cabinet ministers. "We are growing stronger and our appeal is becoming wider," Ibrahim al-Jaberi, a senior official at al-Sadr's office in Sadr City, said Saturday. Sadr City is a sprawling Baghdad neighborhood that is home to some 2.5 million Shiites and the largest bastion of...

Anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, left, and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi speak after a meeting in Najaf 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, May 24, 2005. The meeting with Muqtada al-Sadr sought to defuse tension between Sunnis and majority Shiites after a recent series of sectarian killings. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani)Iraqi Shi'ite leaders Moqtada al-Sadr (L), Ahmad Chalabi (C) and Abdel Karim Mahoud talk to reporters after meeting in the holy city of Najaf May 24, 2005. Chalabi and Mahoud travelled to Najaf from Baghdad for a briefing from Sadr on his attempts to mediate between...

BASRA, Iraq, March 28 - Celia Garabet thought students were roughhousing. Sinan Saeed was sure a fight had erupted. Within a few minutes, on a sunny day at a riverside park, they realized something different was afoot. A group of Shiite Muslim militiamen with rifles, pistols, thick wire cables and sticks had charged into crowds of hundreds at a college picnic. They fired shots, beat students and hauled some of them away in pickup trucks. The transgressions: men dancing and singing, music playing and couples mixing. That melee on March 15 and its fallout have redrawn the debate that has...

When U.S. forces rolled through Iraq in March and April 2003, most Shi‘ites greeted them as liberators. But, the demise of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq unleashed an array of forces that had been dormant or suppressed for more than three decades. From almost total political marginalization, the Iraqi Shi‘ites found themselves at the center of political power. While some political parties such as Da'wa and the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq participated in the U.S.-sponsored political process, it was not long before U.S. forces became aware of a new force among the Shi‘ites.Muqtada al-Sadr, a young cleric...