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(excerpt) ...calling its treatment of millions of Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip "inhumane" and urging the terrorist organization and its followers to immediately give up arms, sit down and make peace. The unprecedented declaration, published by the Islamic Fatwa Council, a non-government body of Shiite, Sunni and Sufi clerics headquartered in the Iraqi spiritual capital of Najaf, states that Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, "bears responsibility for its own reign of corruption and terror against Palestinian civilians within Gaza" and deems "it prohibited to pray for, join, support, finance or fight on behalf...

Devout Shiite pilgrims were left covered in blood as they struck themselves with swords and chains during the mourning procession to mark the day of Ashura in the holy city of Najaf. Ashura, on the 10th day of the mourning month of Muharram, commemorates the killing of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson Hussein at the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD - the defining moment of Islam's confessional schism. Typically, millions of Shiites from around the world flock to the golden-domed shrine where Hussein's remains are buried, to pray and cry, shoulder-to-shoulder. But with coronavirus numbers spiking across the globe, this...

Anti-government protesters in Iraq burned down an IranianConsulate Wednesday, as unrest continues to grow against Iraqi lawmakers and Tehran's growing influence in Iraqi affairs. The consulate building in Najaf was torched and the Iranian flag was removed and replaced with an Iraqi one. Staffers inside were not harmed and escaped through a back door. One protester was killed and 35 were wounded when police opened fire to prevent them from entering the facility. Protesters previously attacked an Iranian consulate in Karbala earlier this month. No one was harmed in that attack.

Iraqi Ayatollah Ahmad Al-Baghdadi Talks of America's Annihilation and the Muslim Conquest of the World; Declares Support for Nuclear Bombs for Muslim and Arab Countries The following are excerpts from speeches and interviews with Iraqi Ayatollah Ahmad Husseini Al-Baghdadi, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on May 5, 2006, on Syrian TV on May 3, 2006, and on ANB TV on April 14, 2006.TO VIEW THIS CLIP: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1135. "The Mujahid Iraqi People... Has Shattered the American Plan, Not Only in the Region, but Throughout the World"Ayatollah Ahmad Husseini Al-Baghdadi: "Jihad in Islam, from the perspective of Islamic jurisprudence, is of two...

In the hunt for Saddam Hussein's billions, investigators have identified five networks of more than 100 companies used to launder money skimmed from Iraqi oil sales. Saddam's gangster regime set up shell companies in Switzerland, Jordan, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg and Panama, according to investigators. Those company networks and their banking affiliations were used to enrich the former Iraqi strongman, his sons Uday and Qusay, and other family members. "Ultimately, the money was stolen from the Iraqi people," said Taylor Griffin, spokesman for the Treasury Department, which is heading the government's laundering probe along with U.S. Customs, the Secret Service and various...

Police in Hamburg shut down the notorious al-Quds mosque, renamed the Taiba mosque in 2008, led by German-Syrian national and voluntary imam Mamoun Darkazanli. Darkazanli (a.k.a. Abu Ilyas al-Suri) has been a suspected al-Qaeda operative, primarily as a financier and logistician, in the European Union for close to two decades. Long active in al-Qaeda circles, Darkazanli first surfaced on the radar of Western intelligence agencies when he purportedly helped procure a cargo ship named “Jennifer” for Osama bin Laden as early as 1993 (Hamburger Abendblatt, October 16, 2004). Germany’s Bundeskriminalamt (BKA- Federal Criminal Police Office) admitted that it had been...

Smugglers In Iraq Have A New Trade: Corpse by QUIL LAWRENCE EnlargeJoseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images A tomb at the cemetery of Najaf in 2008. The Wadi al-Salam, or Valley of Peace, in Najaf is one of the largest cemeteries in the world. Millions of Shiite Muslims over the centuries have been brought here for burial from all over the world. text sizeAAANovember 4, 2009 Iraqi and U.S. officials have expressed concerns about the traffic of weapons and drugs across the country's porous borders, but there is also an older and more surprising commodity being smuggled into Iraq — cadavers. For centuries,...

NAJAF, Iraq — A stream of U.S. military trucks laden with supplies rolled down a dusty four-lane highway over the weekend, ending the U.S. presence in one of Shiite Islam’s holiest cities. Coalition forces, including U.S., British and Spanish troops, have patrolled Najaf, with its population of around 900,000, since it was captured by the 101st Airborne Division in April 2003. The city has had its share of violence since then. Uprisings by firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia in 2004 sparked fierce fighting in the Wadi al-Salem — a sprawling cemetery where Shiites from around the world hope to be...

Note: The following blog entry is a quote: Kurdish Mass Grave Discovered in Iraq The Iraqi Human Rights Ministry announced that a mass grave has been discovered in southern Najaf, containing the bodies of 3,000 Kurds murdered by the Saddam Hussein regime. It should be noted that about 100,000 Kurds were murdered by this regime, and that, even six years after its fall, the bodies of thousands of murdered civilians remain undiscovered. In Najaf alone, 48 mass graves have been found. Source: Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), May 17, 2009. Posted at: 2009-05-17

(Ali Abu Shish/Reuters) Najaf's holy status is tied to the shrine of Imam Ali. Last year 1.5 million Iranian pilgrims visited the Iraqi city************************************ The first flight from Iran in three decades landed in Iraq's holy city of Najaf today, resurrecting a direct link between the world's two major Shia communities. Passengers from Tehran arrived at a brand-new airport, a symbol of Iraq's rebirth and a gateway for 3 million Iranian Shia pilgrims planning to visit Najaf this year, hoping to overcome tensions going back to the Iran-Iraq War. But old enmity dies hard. Iran is viewed with increasing...

Sadr City, 15 Dec. (AKI) - Thousands of Iraqis on Monday demanded the release of Muntazer al-Zaydi, the journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W. Bush. The protests took place in the Shia Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr City and the demonstrators marched towards the headquarters of the Iraqi press syndicate, in al-Waziriya, said Iraqi news agency Voices of Iraq. The protesters, who were reportedly made up of followers of radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, also burned American flags. Meanwhile, a statement calling for the release of al-Zaydi was issued by the Cairo-based satellite news channel al-Boghdadiya, where...

NAJAF, Iraq - The city's first airport is weeks away from opening, but already a bigger one is talked about. Land prices are soaring. Merchants say they don't remember business ever being so good. Four years ago, Najaf was an urban battlefield, with American troops fighting Shiite militiamen loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Today, the Shiite holy city is a hot spot of a different kind, thanks to improved security, a free-for-all market economy - and a direct pipeline to the Shiite-led government.

AN NAJAF — Provincial and local officials hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony July 19 to open a new Primary Healthcare Center in Sooq-sha’lan. An Najaf Deputy Governor Hassan Abtan pointed out that, prior to the PHC’s opening, residents traveled for an hour to get medical care. “Now it’s just 5 to 10 minutes away,” he added. He praised the quality of the construction, said the Iraqi crew who built it should be proud, and also complimented the partnering effort between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and provincial officials to ensure the project’s successful completion. Those attending included Abtan, Dr....

BAGHDAD, July 22, 2008 – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki waved to cheering crowds July 20 as he stepped off the first plane landing at Najaf International Airport. Iraqi girls smile in celebration of the Najaf International Airport inauguration, July 20, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michel Sauret, Multinational Division Center  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The celebration marked the opening of a new airport that will facilitate travel, boost business opportunities and increase tourism. "The Najaf airport is a starting point for competition among provinces and local governments to make extraordinary progress toward reconstruction. …...

via translation - Sadr threat of an "open war" if the attacks against him are continuing NAJAF (Iraq) - The head radical anti-American Moqtada Sadr threatened Saturday to launch "an open war" if the operations of American and Iraqi forces against his movement continued, in a statement signed by him and published in Najaf (south of Baghdad). "I give a final warning, and I gave my word to the Iraqi government to choose the path of peace and stop the violence against its own people, if it is a government of destruction," the young religious leader. "If it does not...

Mourners carry the body of Fadhil al-Akil to his burial in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, Friday Iraqi police say gunmen have killed an aide to the country's most revered Shi'ite cleric, in the latest attack on his associates. Police say Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's aide, Sheikh Fadhil Aqil, was killed late Thursday in a drive-by shooting outside his home in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf. Last month, another aide, Sheikh Abdullah Falak, who collected religious taxes for Sistani was stabbed to death in Najaf. In statements issued Friday, the U.S. military in Iraq said four American soldiers...

BAGHDAD, July 21 -- A top aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani was stabbed to death in what Sistani's supporters believe was a warning to Iraq's senior Shiite cleric, authorities said Saturday. Abdullah Falaq was killed Friday in his office, which is adjacent to Sistani's home in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, about 100 miles south of Baghdad, according to an aide to the cleric. Sistani is considered one of the most influential Shiite leaders in Iraq, and Falaq was his chief adviser on matters of Islamic law. Police said they had taken four suspects into custody. An...

Excerpt - NAJAF, Iraq, June 6 (Reuters) - A local representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the reclusive spiritual leader of Iraq's Shi'ite majority, was gunned down outside his home, Sistani's office and police said on Wednesday. Raheem al-Hasnawi, who represented Sistani in the town of al-Mishkhab, 40 km (25 miles) north of the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf, was killed late on Tuesday, they said. A spokesman for Sistani's office said three gunmen riding in a car shot Hasnawi outside his home in al-Mishkhab. ~ snip ~

Excerpt - BAGHDAD (AFP) - Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr may end a four month absence from the Iraqi public scene by giving the Friday sermon at his mosque in Kufa, depending on the security situation, supporters said. "We are looking into whether or not his eminence Moqtada al-Sadr will make his appearance in Kufa, depending on the seriousness of some threats to his security," said Abdel Mahdi al-Muteiri, an official in his Baghdad office. In Najaf itself, members of Sadr's organisation confirmed that preparations were underway for him to lead prayers in nearby Kufa, but his actual appearance would...

No excerpt allowed, and I will not provide an active link, but here is the URL in plaintext - http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2565123.ece