Word: mehdi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...month-long standoff with Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi militia, however, has thus far defied all efforts at a mediated solution. Fierce clashes provoked by Sadrist fire this week drew the Americans ever closer to fighting outside the sacred shrines in Najaf and Karbala. Sadr appears to be riding on the U.S. campaign against him as a means to eclipse his rivals in the battle for Shiite support. His tactics appear to involve goading the U.S. into increasingly risky actions around the holy sites, and then publicly lambasting Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani for failing to act on his warning...
...Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey of the 1st Armored Division has proposed creating a Najaf Brigade to police the city, which would initially comprise 1,800 men drawn from militias loyal to local tribal chiefs and to the various Shiite political parties, and could include members of Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi militia. Dempsey proposed similar arrangements for recruiting some of Sadr's men in five other cities. The fact that U.S. military commanders are now talking openly about absorbing insurgent elements that the Bush administration had only weeks earlier vowed to destroy may indicate a shift in Iraq toward more realistic...
...Sadr is playing a three-way game, using his confrontation with the Americans to challenge his political rivals in the Shiite community. Even as negotiations continue, his forces are clashing with U.S. troops at Karbala, Kufa and Baghdad. The U.S. objective may be to weaken the Mehdi militia and raise the pressure on Moqtada, but the firebrand cleric appears to be using that pressure to his own ends - particularly to challenge his more moderate rivals, chief among them Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Sadr has long rejected what he sees as Sistani's quiescence toward the occupation, and he cleverly judged...
...street. "They got Saddam!" "The devil is gone." It was like a wedding day, or perhaps more a birthday. "We will be friends with the Americans because of this," said a delighted Syed Hassan al Naji, the Baghdad commander of gadfly cleric Moqtada Sadr's militia, the Army of Mehdi. In his white turban and long robes, Al-Naji beamed with pleasure in his neighbor's house in Sadr City as the news came out over the Arabic news channels. "This is a great...
...street. ?They got Saddam!? ?The devil is gone.? It was like a wedding day, or perhaps more a birthday. ?We will be friends with the Americans because of this,? said a delighted Syed Hassan al Naji, the Baghdad commander of gadfly cleric Moqtada Sadr?s militia, the Army of Mehdi. In his white turban and long robes, Al-Naji beamed with pleasure in his neighbor?s house in Sadr City as the news came out over the Arabic news channels. ?This is a great...