Word: mahdy
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Hours later, al-Sadr accepted a deal that would empty the shrine of his fighters, and in return U.S. forces would withdraw from the city, turning over responsibility for keeping the peace to Iraqi police. But uncertainty lingered over how long the truce would last. The upstart cleric, whose Mahdi Army was allowed to withdraw intact, has reneged on agreements before, and this latest tactical retreat, after hundreds of his men had been killed, left him and his surviving militiamen free to fight another day. The interim Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had repeatedly vowed to crush...
...IMAM ALI SHRINE, WE HAD to walk through the battlefield. Snipers' bullets buzzed past our heads and lodged in the wall, sending a fine dust of pulverized plaster over us as I, my interpreter Hussam and three Mahdi fighters on the street tumbled into an open storefront to escape the barrage. The militiamen stood between us and the door to shield us from the unrelenting fire. They were young, polite and dedicated to their cause. As they saw it, they were protecting their holiest site from infidel Americans. But the Mahdi fighters were perfectly willing to safeguard...
...which earlier in the week claimed responsibility for a deadly double bus bombing in Israel, and an aide to Iraq's rebel Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for the men's release. The reporters were on their way to Najaf to cover clashes between al-Sadr's Mahdi army and Iraqi government and American forces when they were captured on Aug. 20. Over the past five months, more than 100 hostages from nearly 20 countries have been seized in Iraq. In some cases they were freed. Seven truck drivers abducted in July were released by their captors last...
...Prime Minister declared that any offensive into the shrine would be carried out by Iraqi forces (backed up, however, by U.S. troops and air power), yet even that possibility posed a no-win dilemma for the U.S. "If the Americans fail to take the shrine, they lose militarily," a Mahdi Army official told TIME. "And if they take the shrine, they lose politically." But Al-Sadr knew that as long as his men held the shrine, the advantage...
...officials and Middle East experts warn that a failure to crush the Mahdi Army will encourage militants across the country to multiply. Other political and ethnic factions have fielded armed militias since the fall of Saddam Hussein, and many wield more authority than Allawi's government. Retired Marine General Anthony Zinni says the Americans who ran Iraq after the invasion are to blame for the unchecked growth of the militias "because they didn't have a clear policy on how to deal with them back when they were easier to put down...