Word: moqtada
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Crocker could be right. We have no idea what is on the mind of the populist Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. If Sadr were allowed control of the Basra oil terminal, would he shut down Iraq's oil exports? Shell Kuwaiti fields...
Iraqi military spokesman Major General Qassim Atta told reporters on Sunday that the government was making some headway in its battle in the sprawling Shi'ite slum of Sadr City against the Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. "The roads into Sadr City were laden with mines and IEDs," he said, adding that three entrances into the besieged Mahdi Army stronghold had now been opened. The General added that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has designated $100 million for the neighborhood's reconstruction once the fight is finally over. But despite that progress report, the American-backed...
...Iraqi government have been trumpeting the growing confidence and successes of the Iraqi army and police force, since Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched an offensive against Basra last month, with the aim of reclaiming control of the southern port city from the Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Despite meeting powerful resistance from the Mahdi Army, and suffering the desertion of roughly 1,300 soldiers who refused to fight, the Iraqis' performance was commended by the U.S. as a show of their newfound competence. "Iraqi forces are taking the lead," Rear Admiral Patrick Driscoll told journalists...
...plaguing Iraq's floundering forces. More troublesome is their heavily sectarian composition. Throughout southern Iraq, members of the police and army are pulled largely from the Badr Brigade - a militia tied to a Shi'ite political party, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, which is the chief rival of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. A number of MPs in Baghdad even suspect that Maliki's Basra assault was a poorly disguised government campaign to wipe out Sadr's base of popularity before local elections in October. That's why it was no surprise, said Lieutenant Ryan Lawson...
...would be particularly troublesome if Moqtada al-Sadr declared an open war," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander of U.S. forces in southern Iraq. "I hope that doesn't happen...