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Soldiers from Company A, 64th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division set concrete barriers in place in the surroundings of the southern portion of the Sadr City district of Baghdad May 3. (US Army photo/Specialist Joseph Rivera Rebolledo) The battle for Sadr City continues as US and Iraqi forces continue to erect the concrete security barrier on Qods Street, the main thoroughfare that divides the southern third of Sadr City from the northern portion. US Special Operations Forces teams have entered the fray, and the specialized teams are fighting inside the Mahdi Army bastion for...

Iraqi soldiers have begun evacuating families from portions of Sadr City, a sign that a large offensive will start shortly against the Mahdi Army militia that have long controlled the sector of Baghdad. Two stadiums have been secured for sheltering the evacuees as the government of Nouri al-Maliki attempts to break Moqtada al-Sadr’s last stronghold and end mortar attacks on the Green Zone. Maliki also wants to end Iran’s influence in Iraq, which caused Iran to cut off security talks with Maliki and the US:

When the Sadr-Maliki story first broke during the initial push into Basra I noted something was distinctly missing from the news about Maliki’s failed efforts and Sadr’s grand victory - there was no dancing in the streets in response to the news stories? There were no cheers for Sadr, no celebrations by the Iraqi people. If this was the Muslim Street rising up to throw off the occupiers from the West - where were the throngs of people taking to the streets? It struck me as very odd that the only spontaneous cheer to rise up from the initial operations...

An Iraqi soldier with the 1st Iraqi Army examines one of more than 160 mortars found during Operation Charge of the Knights in Basra April 19. Some of the markings on the weapons indicate a manufacturing date in 2007. U.S. Army photo. BASRA — The Iraqi Army discovered a large weapons and munitions cache in a house located in the Al Hyyaniyah area of Basra April 19. Soldiers from the 1st Iraqi Army discovered the cache during the search phase of Operation Charge of the Knights. The cache consisted of a large number of weaponry with Iranian markings. The cache...

BAGHDAD — Iraqi soldiers took control of the last bastions of the cleric Moktada al-Sadr’s militia in Basra on Saturday, and Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad strongly endorsed the Iraqi government’s monthlong military operation against the fighters. By Saturday evening, Basra was calm, but only after air and artillery strikes by American and British forces cleared the way for Iraqi troops to move into the Hayaniya district and other remaining Mahdi Army militia strongholds and begin house-to house searches, Iraqi officials said. Iraqi troops were meeting with little resistance, said Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Ministry...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday threatened an "open war" against the Iraqi government unless it halted a crackdown by Iraqi and U.S. security forces on his followers. The specter of a full-scale uprising by Sadr sharply raises the stakes in his confrontation with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has threatened to ban the anti-American cleric's movement from political life unless he disbands his militia. A rebellion by Sadr's Mehdi Army militia -- which has tens of thousands of fighters -- could abruptly end a period of lower violence at a time when U.S. forces are starting...

THE toll from fierce fighting in Baghdad’s Sadr City has risen to at least 200 dead and more than 1,000 injured, according to doctors in the besieged suburb. US and Iraqi troops killed at least 13 gunmen in heavy fighting there yesterday against the Mahdi Army loyal to the radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The reports from Sadr City hospitals suggest far higher casualty figures than previously reported, although they cannot be independently verified. Dr Qassem Mudalal, the director of the Imam Ali hospital, said: “There are 230 killed, I can confirm, in the hospitals of Sadr City. I’ve...

Just scrolled on bottom of screen that Al Sadr is Dead ??? Anybody confirm !!

With the Iraqi government applying pressure to the Sadrist movement and Muqtada al Sadr to disband the Mahdi Army, Iraq’s senior Shia cleric has weighed in on the issue. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most revered Shia cleric in Iraq, backed the government’s position that the Mahdi Army should surrender its weapons and said he never consulted with Sadr on disbanding the Mahdi Army. Instead, the decision to disband the Mahdi Army is Sadr’s to make. Sistani spoke through Jalal el Din al Saghier, a senior leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a rival political party to the...

Iraqi Special Forces, advised by Coalition troops, take on the Madhi Army in Sadr City. This is the one of the most intense firefights ever caught on film, and it explains why al Sadr has already begged for a truce. The overweight and/or underage dopes of the Madhi Army are no match for the increasingly lethal Iraqi forces. Prime Minister Maliki has the upper hand now. Listen for the GAU minigun ripping away at 50 rounds per second.

NAJAF, Iraq, March 30 (Reuters) - Followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will not hand over their weapons as part of a move to end a week of fighting in Iraq, a top Sadr aide said. The aide, Hazem al-Araji, also said that Sadr's followers had received a guarantee from the government that it would end "random arrests" of Sadr followers. "The weapons of the resistance will not be delivered to the Iraqi government," he told journalists at Sadr's office in the holy city of Najaf after distributing a statement from Sadr calling on followers to stop fighting. Sadr's statement...

Baghdad, Iraq (AHN) - In a surprise move Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr on Sunday ordered his fighters off the streets of Basra and other cities in Iraq. Sadr said in a statement that his movement wanted the Iraqi people to stop the bloodshed and for Iraq to maintain its independence and stability. He had previously defied the Iraqi government's deadline to turn weapons in for cash. According to reports, it is unclear if all of Sadr's followers will comply with his order. According to reports, the United States has used ground troops in Basra.

BREAKING NEWS: Al-Sadr calls for an end to Shiite revolt in south Iraq. More soon ...

Muqtada al-Sadr apparently has had enough; he's offered a "truce" if the Iraqi government will stop attacking his men. I'm not close enough to the situation to know whether it would be better to accept the truce or continue disabling Sadr's militia, but the proposal seems like a clear indication that things haven't gone as Sadr intended. This episode might prove to be, as President Bush suggested, a defining moment in Iraq's post-war history. The main knock on Maliki's government has been that it is a Shia instrument that has sometimes been infiltrated by radical Shia elements. Sunnis have often...

With the fifth day of fighting in Baghdad, Basrah and the South completed, the Mahdi Army has suffered major losses over the past 36 hours. The Mahdi Army has not faired well over the past five days of fighting, losing an estimated two percent of its combat power, using the best case estimate for the size of the militia. A look at the open source press reports from the US and Iraqi military and the established newspapers indicates 134 Mahdi Army fighters were killed, 81 were wounded, 98 were captured, and 30 surrendered during the past 36 hours. Since the...

US forces stepped deeper into the Iraqi government's fight to cripple Shiite militias. It has launched air strikes in the southern city of Basra and firing a Hellfire missile in the main Shiite stronghold in Baghdad. . The American support occurred Friday as Iraqi troops struggled against strong resistance in Basra and retaliation elsewhere in Shiite areas - including more salvos of rockets or mortars into the US-protected Green Zone in Baghdad. It was the first time American jets have been called to attack militia positions since Iraqi ground forces launched an operation Tuesday to clear Basra of the armed...

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...

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...

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.

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...

<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>

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2008 – Violence has dropped in southern Iraq, but Iranian-influenced ”special groups” remain a concern, the commander of the U.S. brigade that provides theater security said today. Army Col. Charles Flynn spoke to Pentagon reporters via teleconference from his headquarters at Coalition Operating Base Adder at Talil Air Base near Nasiriyah, Iraq. The 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division has had the mission since July. The brigade ensures that the ground lines of communication and supply lines to multinational forces remain open. “We're not landowners per se, but our area of operations spans...

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).

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...

Muqtada al-Sadr's surprise decision to stand down his Mahdi Army for up to six months was designed to stop a Shiite-Shiite rift from spiraling out of control and to weed out infiltrators in his militia's ranks, according to aides of the radical Shiite cleric. Al-Sadr issued his surprise declaration last Wednesday following two days of deadly clashes in the holy city of Karbala between his Mahdi Army and the rival Badr militia of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, the country's largest Shiite party and a U.S. partner. Involvement in inter-Shiite fighting has hurt the image of al-Sadr and his Mahdi...

Wednesday, August 29, 2007 BAGHDAD — Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered a six-month suspension of activities by his Mahdi Army militia in order to reorganize the force, and it will no longer attack U.S. and coalition troops, aides said Wednesday. The aide, Sheik Hazim al-Araji, said on Iraqi state television that the goal was to "rehabilitate" the organization, which has reportedly broken into factions, some of which the U.S. maintains are trained and supplied by Iran. "We declare the freezing of the Mahdi Army without exception in order to rehabilitate it in a way that will safeguard its ideological...

Moqtada al-Sadr has recently accused Iran of assisting Al-Qaeda. Could this be the latest signs of a breakup between the Shia cleric and his allies across the border? In our last post at ITM we briefly mentioned a statement in which Sadr’s office accused Iran of hosting and assisting al-Qaeda, today I’ll talk about that statement in more detail. The claim itself is not strange. What’s strange is whom it came from. Sadr was the last voice we’d expect to say such a thing. Accusing Iran of interfering in Iraq’s affairs is one thing, but accusing it of hosting and...

In the past 10 days, the fiery Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia has resurfaced in force, making a push to roust Sunnis from Baghdad and to isolate Sunni enclaves in the west of the capital from their brethren in the south. Mahdi Army militiamen in the Shiite dominated neighborhood of Bayaa were reinforced by other Shiite fighters and men in civilian clothes with weapons have cordoned off the area. In the past 10 days Mahdi Army activity has escalated, intensifying in the past two days with the capture of two Sunni mosques, residents and police said. The push appears to...

Shiite Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is reported to be keen to put a new face to his movement already embroiled in sectarian revenge and death squads. Since his resurfacing following nearly four months of absence from Iraqi political scene, the young and charismatic Shiite leader has held several meetings with his aides to “restructure the movement whose ranks has been infiltrated by enemies,” officials close to the cleric said. Speaking on condition of anonymity, they said Sadr’s sudden emergence and his meetings have been prompted by the defection of one of his most senior aides, former Health Minister Ali al-Shammari. Shammari,...

US and British forces on Saturday clashed with Moqtada al-Sadr's supporters in Baghdad and Basra, even as Iraq's politicians cautiously welcomed the radical Shiite cleric's return to the political scene. US-led forces seized a suspected militant with ties to Iran and killed five others in an early morning raid in the cleric's Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City, the US military said. The man detained had been "acting as a proxy for an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps officer," and smuggling armour-piercing bombs to local militias, it charged in a statement. It added that five people were killed in an air...

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...

Just Reported, Mod. Hopefully, article will soon follow.

The powerful Iraqi cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr called President George W. Bush the Antichrist on Saturday and urged him to heed calls by the opposition Democrats to withdraw from the chaos of Iraq. In fresh violence on Saturday, 14 people were killed and 39 others were wounded in a suicide car bombing in the holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala south of Baghdad, a hospital said. A Reuters witness said he saw tens of casualties. Sadr, whose ministers quit Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government this month, renewed his demand for a U.S. pullout a day after Bush pledged...

The powerful Iraqi cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr called President George W. Bush the "anti-Christ" on Saturday and urged him to heed calls by the opposition Democrats to withdraw from the chaos of Iraq. Sadr, whose ministers quit Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government this month, renewed his demand for a U.S. pullout a day after Bush pledged to veto legislation that would require U.S. troops to begin leaving Iraq by October 1. Calling Bush "the greatest evil," Sadr said in a letter read out by a Sadrist MP in parliament that an eventual U.S. pullout would be a...

Muqtada al-Sadr issued a statement to his followers in Sadr City Friday, urging them not to cooperate with the US occupation of the area. The statement was followed by a large demonstration against the US presence. After a period of relative calm and cooperation between the US and followers of the Sadrist current, the honeymoon may be over. The statement, read by a loyal cleric at Friday prayers exhorted his followers not to cooperate with the US occupation in Sadr City, Full text of the statement in Arabic is available on the Internet. Below are key excerpts, in translation: The...

BAGHDAD (AP) - 0316dv-baghdad-briefing After weeks of cooperation with a new security plan, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr decried U.S. forces as occupiers Friday and called on his followers to "shout 'No, No America!'" in a sign of resurgent anger and opposition. Thousands of Shiites flooded from the mosque where al-Sadr's statement was read by a preacher at Friday prayers, spilling into the streets of the Sadr City slum to protest the two-week-old American military presence there. The U.S. military says al-Sadr has gone to Iran. Officials with al-Sadr's Mahdi Army did not explain why al-Sadr chose to issue the...

What a guy! What a leader of men. Muqtada Al Sadr has pointed tens of thousands of brave Islamic warriors down the road to paradise. He’s hooked them up with the 72 virgins. Presumably, he even provided them each a heart-shape bed. But when the going got tough, and the tough got surging, Muqtada wasn’t musically inclined towards Teddy Pendergrass and Barry White. No 72 virgins for the Mighty Mook. He left town so fast that an enterprising squad of MI types followed a residual trail of tire rubber all way to the Iranian border. Yep, he went straight to...

Just breaking on CNN and Fox News...

Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr now says he's willing to negotiate or compromise with the U.S. forces in Iraq. John Burns, Baghdad bureau chief for The New York Times, talks with Alex Chadwick.

Excerpt - BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two key members of radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's political and military organization were gunned down just days before the U.S. and Iraqi forces planned to open a massive security drive in Baghdad. Ali Khazim, who ran al-Sadr's political organization in volatile Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, was killed Sunday by U.S. forces at his home in Howaider village, 12 miles east of Baqouba, Saleh al-Ageili, a spokesman for the Sadr Movement's parliamentary bloc, said on Monday. Provincial police confirmed al-Ageili's account. "What has happened to Khazim is part of the series of provocative...

Many Mehdi Army fighters have melted out of sight About 600 fighters and 16 leaders of the radical Shia militia, the Mehdi Army, have been captured by security forces in Iraq, the US military says. The statement said 52 operations had been conducted in 45 days targeting the militia, which is loyal to Najaf-based cleric Moqtada Sadr. Sunni extremists were also the focus of the crackdown, the US military said. US and Iraqi forces are currently preparing for a broad offensive in the strife-torn Iraqi capital Baghdad. Criminal activities by these individuals propagated instability within Iraq US military statement...

U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested one of Muqtada al-Sadr's top aides Friday in Baghdad, his office said, as pressure increased on the radical Shiite cleric's militia ahead of a planned security crackdown in the capital. Al-Sadr said in an interview with an Italian newspaper published Friday that the crackdown had already begun and that 400 of his men had been arrested. La Repubblica also quoted him as saying he fears for his life and stays constantly on the move. The raid came as Defense Secretary Robert Gates began his second trip to Iraq in less than a month, arriving in...

Iraq's prime minister has told Shiite militiamen to surrender their arms or face an all-out assault by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces, senior Iraqi officials said Wednesday, as President Bush said he will commit an additional 21,500 American combat troops to the war. Under pressure from the U.S., Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has agreed to crack down on fighters controlled by his most powerful political ally, Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric, according to officials. Previously, al-Maliki had resisted the move. "Prime Minister al-Maliki has told everyone that there will be no escape from attack," said a senior Shiite legislator and close...

A NEW offensive against Iraq's Mahdi Army - a militia blamed for sectarian death squad killings - is to be launched by the United States and Britain, it was claimed yesterday. US-led forces are to target the organisation, led by the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, after the Pentagon described it as the biggest threat to Iraq's security. Diplomats say Washington is impatient to confront its key figures. Several officials in the Shiite political parties that dominate the unity government of the prime minister, Nuri al- Maliki, are also losing patience with Sadr's supporters and predict more raids like last week's...

Moqtada al-Sadr with deputy, who was arrested by US Forces.

One way to understand Moqtada al-Sadr is to think of him as a young Mafia don. He aims for respectability, and is willing to kill for it. Yet the extent of his power isn't obvious to the untrained eye. He has no standing army or police force, and the Mahdi Army gunmen he employs have no tanks or aircraft. You could mistake him—at your peril—for a common thug or gang leader. And if he or his people were to kill you for your ignorance, he wouldn't claim credit. But the message would be clear to those who understand the brutal...

If you want to imbue a discussion with an air of gravitas, you start by identifying the main character by his full name: George Herman Ruth. Dwight David Eisenhower. Homer Jay Simpson.So consider the case of one William Joseph Buckner, who almost two decades ago (the precise anniversary is Wednesday, Oct. 25) bent over to field a grounder hit by Mookie Wilson. We all know what happened after that -- you've seen the video a few jillion times, you've read about the scapegoating, and the subsequent reaction to the scapegoating. After 20 years of scrutiny under the electron microscope of...

American and Iraqi forces face a major problem in Baghdad: how to deal with the Mahdi Army, which has been linked to death squads responsible for a string of assassinations and kidnappings. Worse, the Mahdi Army's leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, seems to be losing his grip on the thousands of armed men who once followed his every word. "There are forces that are controlled by Moqtada, but there are commanders that are not controlled by him; there are death squads that are not controlled by him," U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad told NEWSWEEK. Under the leadership of Sadr, the Mahdi...

Eventually, we learned a lesson from Fallujah. It is the same lesson illustrated by American freelance writer Steven Vincent’s death. After the four American contractors were burned and hung from that bridge in Fallujah in April of 2004, we took a step back. Perhaps afraid that we would be perceived as retaliating in anger, we waited and tried to let that problem solve itself. It didn’t. Fallujah, already a dangerous nest for the Sunni insurgency, metastasized into a city of terror, a base from which Baathist and al Qaeda butchers launched their war on Americans and on the people of...

BAGHDAD, Oct 12 (AFP) - The US commander for Baghdad's Sadr City professed "cautious optimism" Tuesday over a peace initiative with Shiite rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr's militia, but warned that breakaway factions of the radical movement were refusing to comply. "I'm cautiously optimistic for a couple of reasons. One, we've never before had an initiative announced with the endorsement of Moqtada Sadr to disarm and disband... They'll generally listen to him," Colonel Abe Abrams told AFP. "And so that's a good sign. But it's just a sign. It's not a turning point. It's a starting point. It's not a dramatic...