Word: ite
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When the envelope was finally opened, Moqtada al-Sadr's message couldn't have been tamer. Having sent out sealed envelopes to Shi'ite mosques around Iraq containing his verdict on the future of the cease-fire observed by his Medhi Army, Iraq waited on tenterhooks for the message to be read at Friday prayers. "I'm extending the freeze of army activity," al-Sadr's statement read, ordering his militia to remain standing down until mid-August, when presumably the cleric will reconsider. Despite pressure from within his movement's ranks to end the cease-fire that, they complain...
Senior U.S. officials in Baghdad don't seem too worried that the six-month deadline Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr set for his militia's unilateral cease-fire is about to lapse. "There has been some communication back and forth that appears to indicate that it will continue," said Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. U.S. officials say the cease-fire was a major factor in lowering violence across Iraq, where an ongoing surge of U.S. forces is now focused primarily on fighting Sunni extremists. "I would say it probably caused us about...
...Wednesday, echoing an earlier threat, a spokesman for Sadr and the Mahdi Army said that if the Shi'ite warlord did not reissue his cease-fire order by Saturday, it would be officially over. Petraeus, Odierno and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker are all holding out hope that the cease-fire will be maintained, however. Petraeus said U.S. commanders were keeping up a running dialogue with leadership from the Mahdi Army. "There are numerous discussions ongoing," said Petraeus, who's personally spoken with senior figures in Sadr's circle. "And there's talks at my level, sometimes directly...
...cease-fire had its origins in intra-Shi'a rivalries. Most observers were surprised last August when Sadr's Mahdi Army militia announced a six-month cease-fire, shortly after bloody Shi'ite infighting erupted in Karbala. Thousands of pilgrims had gathered in the city for a Shi'ite festival. Some Sadrists who turned up for the event got into an altercation with local security forces, who are largely loyal to the Sadr movement's chief Shi'ite factional rival, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC). Things escalated, and a street tussle turned into a gun battle that left more...
Still, despite the scenes of mourning in Lebanese Shi'ite circles that has greeted Mughniyah's death, his high profile earned the irritation of some grassroots Hizballah fighters busy battling Israeli occupation troops in south Lebanon in the 1990s. "They talk about Imad Mughniyah, but what did he do?" a Hizballah fighter once grumbled to me. "They suspect him of kidnapping American journalists, blowing up the French paratroops and the U.S. embassy. But things we did in the south [fighting Israeli troops] were militarily worth a hundred times more than what they claim Mughniyah did. Kidnapping is the easiest thing...