Word: moqtada
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...this has become a familiar Green Zone farce. Beholden to the very militias he has vowed to crush, the increasingly hamstrung prime minister has forced U.S. troops guarding the city to don kid gloves when dealing with the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to the radical Shi'ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, which has been blamed for much of the sectarian violence that kills an average of 100 Iraqis a day. And there is palpable frustration among U.S. soldiers patrolling the streets of Baghdad that every time they strike against the Mahdi Army, they are publicly scolded by the Iraqi...
...Babikir was also careful not to link the targets of the raid directly to Moqtada Sadr or his militia, saying violence attributed to the militia was actually the work of renegades...
...driving the violence, or at the very least contributing to the proliferation of armed groups in Baghdad. Abdel Aziz al Hakim, whose Shi'ite coalition holds the most seats in Iraq's parliament, has called on Shi'ites to create armed neighborhood watches to defend themselves against terrorists. Meanwhile Moqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army operates from a sanctuary in Sadr City...
...Things have gotten worse on both fronts. Eighteen months ago the insurgency was not quite so well organized, jihadi groups were operating mainly outside Baghdad and Shi'ite militias were smarting from Moqtada al-Sadr's failed insurrection. It was possible to go out in the evening to a restaurant or a private home. My favorite hangout was a caf? attached to the city's best art gallery, where artists and intellectuals gathered every evening for stale coffee and sparkling conversation. Going out after dark now is out of the question: kidnapping gangs lurk in public places looking for lucrative...
...prescription for reversing the slide to civil war was a reminder of the growing challenge facing coalition forces in stabilizing Iraq. "If we are to avoid a descent into civil war and anarchy," Patey warned, "then preventing the Jaish al-Mahdi [the Mahdi Army of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Sadr] from developing into a state within a state, as Hizballah has done in Lebanon, will be a priority...