Word: muqtada
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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...
...Keegan Cape Town The Context of Restraint In "The Cure For Iraq Fatigue" [June 7], about political speechifying on the Iraq situation, Joe Klein seems to have forgotten a bit of context in disparaging the U.S. forces' "retreat" from Fallujah and its choosing "not to pursue" Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his army. The U.S. military reacted the way it did because it was being criticized for causing civilian casualties. Also, al-Sadr was hiding in his hometown, Najaf, in one of the holiest Shi'ite mosques. I have no doubt that U.S. forces could have made Fallujah...
...cracks down hard on incitement of all kinds--from urging sectarian violence to rebellion, riot and noncompliance. As for Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shi'ite firebrand who whipped up mayhem in the sect's holy cities after his newspaper was shut down at the end of March, al-Rubaie brushes him aside. "This is a bubble that will burst, and we will see it go away," he says. Al-Sadr has indicated he plans to form a political party to compete in coming Iraqi elections. Meanwhile he is keeping up the heat and late last week preached a sermon urging...
...violence and mismanagement that marred his administration but for the political arrangements set in place during his 13 months in Baghdad. But he can't escape questions about his political judgment--in particular the decision in late March to close the newspaper affiliated with the radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. At the time, Bremer said the paper was inciting anti-Americanism and endangering U.S. troops. Adnan Pachachi, then a Governing Council member, says that no one was consulted when Bremer decided to shut the paper down. In response, al-Sadr's loyalists staged a rolling revolt in Baghdad...
...sense of itself has taken a stunning blow. We are still recovering from the last week of April, when the Abu Ghraib photos were revealed and the U.S. military chose not to fight the Islamic radicals in Fallujah (a retreat compounded by last week's decision not to pursue Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army). Taken together, those events represent a coherent pattern of behavior--that of a schoolyard bully, who tortures the weak and runs away from the strong. This is, sadly, the way Abu Ghraib and Fallujah are perceived by our enemies. I was traveling through the Middle...