Word: clerics
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...Abbas hasn't been killing any fellow Iraqis lately - or even Americans, his group's primary target. In fact, the vast militia of radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has been relatively well-behaved since al-Sadr called on his followers to stand down and allow Iraqi government forces to enter Sadr City peacefully in May. Some U.S. and Iraqi military commanders in Baghdad say al-Sadr's call for his men to remain peaceful in order to prevent "more bloodshed" served a tactical purpose, as he began to see a losing battle in the face of an empowered...
...Amara, the capital of Iraq's unruly Maysan province - long a smuggling hub for weapons and drugs on Iraq's border with Iran - Iraqi forces are waging a crackdown on the Mahdi Army, led by popular radical Shi'ite cleric and opposition leader Muqtada al-Sadr. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched the campaign last month under the banner of "imposing the law" and wresting control away from militias operating "outside the law." Similar campaigns in Basra, the chaotic port 100 miles away, and Sadr City, the huge Baghdad slum, initially met fierce resistance from al-Sadr's followers...
...dense and impoverished neighborhood, which houses an estimated 3 million people was easily Iraq's most devastated locale during the seven weeks of fighting that wracked the area as U.S.-backed government forces confronted the Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. According to Nasser Hashem al-Saadi, a member of parliament aligned with al-Sadr, some 25,000 residents fled the area during that time...
...enters its sixth summer. While the GAO doesn't contradict a Pentagon report that indicates violence in Iraq has dropped significantly, it claims the improvement is based on a rickety foundation provided by the now slowing U.S. troop surge, a creaky cease-fire with Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and a U.S.-led effort to recruit former insurgents for policing--not on any sustained reforms needed for lasting peace. The GAO says that only 10% of Iraqi army battalions have reached operational readiness, a claim the Pentagon calls "misleading." The Pentagon also criticizes the GAO for relying on "outdated...
...think the situation is still very fragile," said Talal Ahmed Said, a political writer in Baghdad. "It's possible for any explosion to happen at any time." He thinks the Amara campaign is a sham. "They announced [Amara] a week before [it happened], so all members of the [radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's] Mahdi Army left. After a month they could come back, and likewise in Mosul and Basra...