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BAGHDAD, March 28 (UPI) -- U.S. military troops fought militia in Sadr City, the huge Shiite stronghold in Baghdad, while Iraqi forces held the area's outskirts, officials said. The clashes Thursday indicate U.S. forces were drawn more deeply into a broad offensive Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki undertook in the southern city of Basra earlier against rouge militias, The Washington Post reported Friday. The Mehdi Army of cleric Moqtada Sadr, a Shiite rival of Maliki, seems to have absorbed the brunt of the attacks in Basra, and fighting has spread to other southern cities and parts of Baghdad, the Post...

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...

Amid heavy clashes between government forces and Shiite Muslim militants in Baghdad and the southern port city of Basra, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki issued an ultimatum Wednesday demanding that the militias surrender their weapons within 72 hours. Radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr , whose Mahdi Army militia is a prime target of the government offensive, responded by demanding that Maliki leave Basra. U.S. forces joined Iraqi troops in Baghdad to fight Mahdi Army militants, and police said that at least 20 people had been killed in the Sadr City neighborhood, a stronghold for Sadr's backers. The city's fortified...

BAGHDAD, March 24 -- Followers of influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr launched a civil strike Monday to protest raids and mass arrests by Iraq's security forces, underscoring the growing frustrations of Sadr's group, which U.S. military officials say is playing a key role in keeping down violence in Iraq. In some Baghdad neighborhoods, Sadrist leaders called on shopkeepers to shut their stores and for bus and taxi drivers to cease operations. Fadhil al-Bahadli, head of Sadr's office in the al-Amil district in southwest Baghdad, said followers were planning demonstrations over the next three days. "We want security and we want...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia ordered shops to close in some Baghdad neighborhoods on Monday in what they said was the start of a "civil disobedience campaign." The show of force by the feared militia, which the U.S. military once called the greatest threat to peace in Iraq, alarmed residents, but leaders of Sadr's political bloc in parliament stressed that it was a peaceful protest. The militia has kept a low profile since Sadr called a ceasefire last August and extended it last month, a move U.S. commanders say has helped to sharply reduce...

When Moqtada al-Sadr extended his cease-fire in Iraq last month, many wondered what he had in mind. Did he intend to bide his time, purge his movement of dissenters, or simply withdraw from public life to study Islam in Iran? Almost two weeks ago, Sadr himself provided an answer. He failed: “I have failed to liberate Iraq, and transform its society into an Islamic society.” – Moqtada al-Sadr, Asharq Al Awsat newspaper, March 8, 2008Moqtada al-Sadr — the radical cleric dubbed “The Most Dangerous Man in Iraq” by a Newsweek cover story in December 2006 — has just unilaterally extended...

BAGHDAD - Iraq's elusive Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has decided to drop out of politics for the time being because his disillusionment with the political scene in Iraq has left him sick and anxious, he said in an unusually personal letter to his followers released Friday. In a written response to a query from a group of followers asking why he hadn't been seen in public for so long, Sadr said he had decided to devote himself to a period of study, reflection and prayer after failing in his core mission to rid Iraq of the U.S. occupation or to...

A leading figure in the movement led by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said the group would not pardon anyone if their leader is harmed. “In the event Sadr is harmed, Iraqi will them swim in a lake of blood,” warned Sheikh Sadeq al-Hasnawi. Hasnawi is one of the top officials leading the movement in Sadr’s absence. He said the cleric was currently in Iran “studying and mediating” in the religious city of Qom which is the Iranian equivalent of Iraq’s holy city of Najaf where Shiite clerics are educated and trained. Hasnawi made the remarks in response to unconfirmed reports...

Shi'ite cleric and leader Muqtada Al-Sadr was secretly transferred a few days ago from Iraq to Iran for hospitalization as he was comatose. It was reported that his illness resulted from food poisoning. Al-Sadr is being treated by Iranian specialists, as well as by Russian doctors brought in to help the Iranian medical staff treat him.

BAGHDAD — Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced Friday that he has extended a cease-fire order to his Shiite Mahdi Army by another six months, giving Iraq a chance to continue its fragile recovery from brutal sectarian violence. His message was delivered by Shiite clerics during prayer services in mosques dominated by followers of the black-turbaned cleric. "According to an order by Sayyid Muqtada, activities of the Mahdi Army will be suspended ... for another six month period," al-Sadr's aide Hazim al-Aaraji said, using an honorific for al-Sadr during his sermon at the Kazimiyah mosque in Baghdad. Al-Sadr's decision to halt...

BAGHDAD (AP) - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has threatened to lift by the end of the week a six-month cease-fire widely credited with helping reduce violence in Iraq, officials said Wednesday. Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for al-Sadr in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, said that if the cleric failed to issue a statement by Saturday saying that the cease-fire was extended "then that means the freeze is over." The cease fire was declared in August and due to expire at this month's end. Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army is among the most powerful militias in Iraq. The crux of...

<p>A deal has been reached with kidnappers for the release of two CBS journalists, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office in Basra said Wednesday.</p>

US Captures Militia Leader With Iran Ties February 11, 2008 The Associated Press Lauren Frayer U.S. soldiers captured a suspected Shiite militia commander and one other suspect Monday, the latest of several days of raids in Shiite holy cities south of Baghdad. The arrests came a day after car bombs and gunmen struck new U.S. allies, police and civilians in northern Iraq, killing as many as 53 people in a spasm of violence that coincided with a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Baghdad. The main suspect detained Monday is believed to be in charge of criminal operations...

NAJAF, Iraq (Agencies): Influential members within the movement loyal to Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have told him they do not want his Mehdi Army militia to extend a ceasefire when it expires this month, Sadr’s spokesman said on Monday. The US military says the Shi’ite cleric’s announcement on Aug. 29 to freeze the activities of the feared Mehdi Army for six months has been vital to cutting violence. A return to hostilities could seriously jeopardise those security gains. Sadr has been gauging the mood among senior figures and five main committees had reported back with their views on the truce,...

The 'Manchurian Mullah' February 01, 2008 New York Post Amir Taheri AS the "student" arrives in a bulletproof limousine with heavily armed guards, his teachers, ignoring that he's two hours late, greet him deferentially. The scene takes place at the Shiite seminary in Qom, Iran's holy city. The 35-year-old "student": Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Mahdi Army, a militia often deemed one of Iran's chief assets in Iraq. Sadr has spent much of the last 10 months in Iran, living in a 14-bedroom villa in Tehran's posh Farmanieh neighborhood. From there, he travels 90 minutes to Qom twice a week,...

Coalition forces capture Special Groups leader, 11 detained (Baghdad) Tuesday, 11 December 2007 MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQPRESS DESKBAGHDAD, Iraqhttp://www.mnf-iraq.com703.343.8790    Press Release A071211bDecember 11, 2007Coalition forces capture Special Groups leader, 11 detainedBAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces captured a suspected Special Groups criminal element leader and detained ten other suspects during operations early Tuesday in the Baghdad area. The targeted individual reportedly supervised criminal splinter group trainers throughout Iraq. He allegedly coordinated the explosively formed penetrator, improvised explosive device, operational security and computer security training of numerous criminals, and was personally responsible for paying each trainer every month. He also reportedly directed his cell to...

A leader of the Sadrist movement, or Iraqis loyal to Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, died of wounds sustained during his arrest by police forces in Diwaniya last month, a media source from al-Sadr's office in the province said on Saturday. "On Saturday morning, Sadrist leader Abbas al-Gharabawi died in Diwaniya's General Hospital of wounds sustained during his arrest by emergency police forces in Afak city last month," Abu Zeinab al-Karaawi told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

The British commander in southern Iraq confirmed yesterday that UK officials have been holding talks with supporters of the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army in the hope they would be drawn into the political process. Major General Graham Binns said the security situation in Basra province - to be handed over to Iraqi forces next month - was improving and attacks against British and Iraqi forces had fallen by 90% since British troops withdrew from their last base in the centre of the city in September. Confirming the talks with the Mahdi army, first reported in the Guardian, Binns...

Digg This! WASHINGTON —  Top U.S. commander in Iraq Gen. David Petraeus has met with representatives of Muqtada al-Sadr, once one of the top enemies fueling the insurgency against the elected Iraqi government, FOX News has confirmed. The general has not met personally with al-Sadr, the military said, but the meetings come as the Pentagon is softening its approach to the firebrand Shiite leader who recently eased his hard-line stance with a ceasefire call last August.

Moqtada al-Sadr has signed an agreement with his Shi'ite rivals in southern Iraq to end all hostilities between them. The Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, which recently signed a peace agreement with the central government and the Kurds, has now managed to put Sadr into its coalition, ending years of conflict between the Mahdi Army and the Badr Brigades: Two of Iraq's most influential Shia leaders have signed a deal to try to end violence between their groups. Radical cleric Moqtada Sadr and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq, have been locked in a bitter dispute...