Word: najaf
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...forces reclaimed the city of Kut from the short-lived control of al-Sadr's militia. But Pentagon officials warned that the conflict against al-Sadr and his supporters might drag on: the Shi'ite festival of Arbaeen on Sunday attracted hundreds of thousands of worshippers to Karbala and Najaf, where al-Sadr was holed up. U.S. troops would tread carefully there until at least early this week, when the pilgrims would begin leaving...
...fighters for his Mahdi Army, named for the 12th, or Hidden, Imam, whom Shi'ites believe will return as their Messiah. Al-Sadr delivered fiery anti-American sermons but always stopped short of calling for armed confrontation. Until April 4, that is, when he issued a call from his Najaf office for his black-clad militiamen to "terrorize your enemy." Thousands took to the streets of the capital to attack American forces, and soon a string of cities across the formerly pacific Shi'ite heartland were aflame with running gun battles aimed at ending the U.S.-led occupation...
...Sadr's fierce young lieutenants apply a puritanical Islamic creed when and where they can. They insist women go veiled, they bar Western music and dress, they censor films and close--or burn down--liquor stores. In Najaf they have set up an office for the "Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice," just as the Taliban did in Afghanistan. Al-Sadr has authorized his followers to set up illegal courts and prisons in Baghdad and eight southern cities, where al-Sadr enemies have allegedly been tortured...
...Sadr has financed his rise by entering the booming religious-tourism business, cornering the market on Shi'a pilgrims, who have poured into Najaf to visit its shrines. After the assassination last August of Ayatullah Mohammed Bakir al-Hakim, who used to give Friday sermons at the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, al-Sadr's men worked to consolidate their position in the town--and, more important, their control over the money donated by visitors to its holy sites. Al-Sadr now controls the lockbox at the Imam Ali mosque, worth millions of dollars a year. Last October his militia...
...open to suggestions" on ways of reducing violence in Iraq. Iraqis on the Governing Council appear to have stepped forward with solutions of their own, negotiating cease-fires both in Fallujah and also with the Sadrists in the South. Seven members of the IGC reportedly met Moqtada Sadr in Najaf at the weekend and secured an agreement under which his forces would withdraw from police stations and government buildings they'd occupied, in exchange for undertakings to address his political demands and, according to some reports, to shelve a warrant for his arrest...