Word: militia
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...sect's sacred Imam Ali shrine "until the last drop of my blood has been spilled." The U.S. Marine colonel commanding American and Iraqi-government troops battling the stubborn gunmen of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army proclaimed his men were ready "to finish this fight that the Muqtada militia started." Iyad Allawi, the Prime Minister of Iraq's U.S.-backed interim government, declared there would be "no negotiation or truce" with the Shi'ite rebels. As the battle unfolded amid the dusty vastness of the city's Valley of Peace cemetery adjacent to the shrine and U.S. Marines engaged...
...premature: Sadr's spokesman made clear that he was going nowhere until U.S. and Iraqi government forces pulled back from around the shrine and a cease-fire was in force. And while the latest truce announcement looks set to forestall, once again, a direct assault on his militia forces, it's far from clear that the promised disengagement will occur along the lines announced in Baghdad on Wednesday...
Intense fighting broke out last week between U.S. troops, backed by Iraqi forces, and fighters loyal to the radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. But while al-Sadr's Mahdi militia represents a serious threat to Iraq's stability, an equally vexing challenge to Iraqi order is taking shape in the Sunni Muslim--dominated area northwest of Baghdad, where Sunni terrorists, Baathists and nationalists are thriving...
...latest cease-fire in Najaf may be a telling measure of the political balance of forces in the new Iraq. Having launched an armored offensive into the Shiite holy city after vowing to destroy Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi militia, U.S. commanders abruptly called a halt to offensive operations on Friday as truce negotiations between Sadr and the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi continued. But a new truce wasn't exactly what Allawi and the Americans had in mind when they vowed earlier in the week to finish the fight and break the back of Sadr's forces...
...worth remembering that even as Sadr makes blood-and-fire speeches about fighting to the death in Najaf, his militia in the holy city is pretty much an expeditionary force. Although they have a presence in every Shiite urban community, the Sadrists' organizational base is in the Sadr City slums of East Baghdad, where their capacity for challenging the authority of the U.S.-backed government may be even greater. Following new attacks by Sadr supporters on U.S. and government targets in the capital late last week, the government declared a curfew in Sadr City - but reports suggest it has been...