Word: badr
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...avoided confronting U.S. forces for years, and the cease-fire Sadr announced unexpectedly six months ago was not directed at the Americans as much as it was aimed at halting fighting between Sadr's followers and members of the rival Shi'ite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) and its Badr militia. Intra-Shi'ite fighting threatened al-Sadr's popularity, and it was in his interests to tamp things down. But the Sadrists and SIIC are still vying for control in much of southern Iraq, and their conflict is likely to flare up again. Al-Sadr may be calculating that...
Leadership figures from the Mahdi Army have long accused government security forces of being under the sway of SIIC, which is led by Sadr's chief political rival Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. Until August, the Mahdi Army and the militia wing of al-Hakim's movement, the Badr Brigade, were engaged in a running struggle for influence in southern Iraq, competing for control of everything from gas stations to sacred shrines. The Karbala incident seemed to shock both sides into cooling tensions. But the recent statements suggest the agreement is unraveling. If so, it could draw U.S. troops back into...
...Ministry of Interior, while the CLCs have the backing of the Americans. Not present are the Kurdish Pesh Merga (numbering 1,200 in Baghdad), Shi'ite strongman Moqtada al-Sadr's Jaish al-Mahd (JAM to U.S. soldiers, the Mahdi Army to most others), al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Badr corps (the Shi'ite militia that rivals al-Sadr's) and the Iraqi Army. The list goes...
...When will Iraq get better?" asks Mohammad rhetorically. "Every 100 meters there is a checkpoint for a different group: Iraqi police, Pesh Merga, Badr corps. Most Iraqis have two ID's, one [so they can pass for Shi'ite] and one [so they can pass for Sunni]." The checkpoints serve at least one purpose, says Sheikh Ali, the Shi'ite CLC Godfather of Saha market: the guards burn the neighborhood's trash at night to keep warm. "The goats are starting to complain about that," he jokes...
...militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr calling for a cease-fire, which the ambassador suggested might have come at the behest of Tehran. (Iran may also have had a hand in brokering a truce between the two key Shi'ite militia groups, Sadr's Mahdi Amy and Badr Brigade of the Supreme Islamic Council, which is a key element of the Iraqi government...