Word: moqtada
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...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...
Even as President Bush and Senator John Kerry skirmish over the decisions that took America into Iraq, the challenge facing U.S. soldiers on the ground may be growing tougher. Their showdown with forces loyal to Moqtada Sadr in Najaf comes amid an escalation of violence - and U.S. casualties - following June's transfer of political authority to Iyad Allawi. The Iraqi Prime Minister's decision to launch a military campaign to break the back of the Sadrist challenge represents what could be a fateful gamble on the part of the new government, and its U.S. underwriter...
...Moqtada Sadr's exhortations to battle, his willingness to extend the confrontation throughout southern Iraq and also into Baghdad, and the failure thus far of all efforts to cajole him back into a truce, suggest the firebrand cleric is feeling lucky. By inviting the U.S. military to invade the spiritual epicenter of Iraqi Shiism, the new government risks fatally undermining its prospects for establishing legitimacy among Iraq's majority community. Even though the Sadrists have provoked the confrontation, the prevailing animosity towards the U.S. forces among ordinary Shiites will likely play to Moqtada's advantage in his political challenge...
...arbitrary terror directed at civilians. They are not nearly as troubled by ambushes on U.S. patrols as they are by suicide car bombs driven into crowds of Iraqis lining up for jobs. Iraqi public opinion shows little support for going after a figure such as the Shiite firebrand Moqtada al-Sadr who launched his own insurgency against U.S. forces when they sought to arrest him, but plenty for going after those responsible for mass-casualty attacks on Shiite mosques and other Iraqi targets. Dealing with the suicide-terror element is therefore a top priority for the government...
...ordinary Iraqis and the region; isolate the Sunni insurgents by giving as many former Baathist types as possible a stake in the new Iraq, and send them after the foreign jihadists; draw the skeptical Shi'ites closer by going all-out to organize elections and make sure that Moqtada Sadr's group is participating; keep the Kurds on board; develop a common understanding between Iran, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. over the terms of a new Iraqi political arrangement. A tall order, to be sure, but the alternatives are ghastly...