Word: allawi
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...sacred Imam Ali shrine "until the last drop of my blood has been spilled." The U.S. Marine colonel commanding American and Iraqi-government troops battling the stubborn gunmen of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army proclaimed his men were ready "to finish this fight that the Muqtada militia started." Iyad Allawi, the Prime Minister of Iraq's U.S.-backed interim government, declared there would be "no negotiation or truce" with the Shi'ite rebels. As the battle unfolded amid the dusty vastness of the city's Valley of Peace cemetery adjacent to the shrine and U.S. Marines engaged in a tomb...
...then on the ninth day, everyone drew back. A delegation of Iraqi leaders led by Allawi's National Security Adviser, Muwaffak al-Rubaie, arrived from Baghdad to open talks with al-Sadr aides. U.S. troops suspended their offensive against the Mahdi Army, while the fighters who had battled the Americans hand to hand melted back into the sanctuary of the shrine...
...battle would resume. But the pause was an acknowledgment of how much was at risk for all sides. The uprising poses a grave challenge to the seven-week-old interim government, which has yet to establish popular legitimacy or law and order amid the chaos of post-Saddam Iraq. Allawi had set himself up as a tough guy ready to impose draconian measures to quell the country's relentless violence. Yet taking the fight all the way to the golden-domed Imam Ali shrine, where al-Sadr's men were dug in, could spark uncontrollable rage among the country...
Nevertheless, Iraqi leaders in the interim government who are desperate for national reconciliation see the value of according a role to al-Sadr and his wide following. When the interim government regained sovereignty, Prime Minister Allawi opened talks with the cleric, even offering clemency for the murder charge against him. For weeks, Fa'oud Massoum, the chairman of the committee organizing the national conference to choose an interim legislature, tried to persuade al-Sadr to send representatives, but he has refused...
...Sadr also sees profit in lashing out at Allawi's fragile government. He has kept up his barrage of sermons criticizing the new leadership's failure to improve civil services and security. But some who know al-Sadr say his decision to resume combat had little to do with citizens' grievances and a lot to do with the improving ability of Iraqi government forces to challenge his control in Najaf. Since the hand-off, the strength of the Iraqi National Guard and Iraqi police officers has grown; they are stopping thieves, arresting drug dealers, slowly winning the loyalty of Najaf...