Word: moqtada
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...Monday's attack in Sadr City may indicate that Sunni insurgents are retaliating against Moqtada al Sadr, a Shi'ite cleric and politician, and his Mehdi Army militia. Maliki, like his predecessor, has pledged to control or disarm militias affiliated with Shi'ite political parties, including the Mehdi Army...
...member of the Shi'ite alliance that has the largest bloc of seats in Parliament, Maliki is tied to the parties that control those very militias, and they won't take kindly to any crackdowns. Indeed, Maliki would not be Prime Minister without the consent of militia leader Moqtada Sadr...
...spokesman for the past year. Like Jaafari, Maliki is a Shi'ite Islamist of the Dawa party who spent some of his exile in Iran (the rest was in Damascus, while Jaafari went to London); like Jaafari he owes his position to the backing of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Both men have been accused of having a sectarian outlook despite their public embrace of national unity; both are Iraqi nationalists who oppose the dismembering of Iraq into semi-autonomous mini states; both would also abide by the wishes of Iraq's leading Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah...
...favored Abdul Adel Mahdi as his replacement. Not only is there resentment created by U.S. intervention in the political process, but Adel-Mahdi is the candidate of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the arch-rival of Jaafari's major backer, the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr. More likely is the emergence of a weak compromise candidate to preside over a fractious government facing divisive issues ranging from revising the constitution and oil revenues to dealing with the militias responsible for growing sectarian strife. Not surprising, then, that Secretary Rice warned Wednesday that violence in Iraq will...
...resolving the standoff, has insisted that it resolve the issue both speedily and unanimously. That demand will likely translate into a compromise candidate, and Abdul-Mahdi doesn't necessarily fit that bill: not only has he come out publicly against Jaafari, but Jaafari's principal backer is radical cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose militia and political organization are at loggerheads with Abdul-Mahdi's SCIRI. In the end, the Shi'ites may be inclined to find a more neutral candidate not affiliated with either faction - a candidate who would, in point of fact, start out even weaker than Jaafari...