Word: mahdi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...military commanders in Iraq and the Iraqi government have been trumpeting the growing confidence and successes of the Iraqi army and police force, since Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched an offensive against Basra last month, with the aim of reclaiming control of the southern port city from the Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Despite meeting powerful resistance from the Mahdi Army, and suffering the desertion of roughly 1,300 soldiers who refused to fight, the Iraqis' performance was commended by the U.S. as a show of their newfound competence. "Iraqi forces are taking the lead...
...town in the central Iraqi province of Babil, soldiers and residents say the violence was fiercest on March 25. And at least one American soldier said he was angry that the role of Iraqi troops was exaggerated after the battle. "A gunfight broke out and we were fighting [the Mahdi Army] for about four hours," the soldier told TIME. "The army article made it sound like we were just there supporting the Iraqi Army, but we did all the work. We just had four humvees out there with some Iraqi [troops...
...Sadr City, the militia's base in east Baghdad, heavy fighting erupted again Saturday night as the Mahdi Army continued street battles with Iraqi forces backed by U.S. airstrikes and American ground troops. At least 13 were reported to have died in overnight clashes...
...State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Iraq. News of her arrival in Baghdad quickly spread through the city, where sandstorms swirled late in the day. Residents near the Green Zone heard at least one explosion in the vicinity of the compound, which has been bombed repeatedly by Mahdi Army fighters since the crisis began. Rice, who was traveling in the Middle East to attend regional conferences, told reporters she came to Iraq because she wanted to highlight what she described as political progress made by the Iraqi government towards reconciling the country's violently opposed factions...
...militia with shoring up government support among Iraq's Kurds and Sunnis. "You've seen a coalescing of a center in Iraqi politics." Maliki, also a Shi'ite, had drawn criticism in the past by Sunni factions in particular for failing to crack down on the Mahdi Army, which is blamed for much of the sectarian violence in Iraq...