Word: sadr
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Hundreds of Shi'ites loyal to al-Sadr gathered outdoors [on July 25, 2008] for Friday noon prayer and a heated sermon by an imam in al-Sadr's movement. He blasted the American occupiers and the security deal being negotiated between the U.S. and al-Maliki's government. Worshippers laughed when asked, rhetorically, who controls the neighborhood, which is home to some 3 million of Baghdad's poor. "This area is controlled by the Sadrist movement. The Iraqi army only watches over Friday noon prayer - no more and no less," says worshipper Ali Kate'a, 31, as soldiers with...
...right, or the Iraqi army's resources were too focused on the sermon and subsequent political demonstration to pay much mind to the rest of the neighborhood. But police and army checkpoints become noticeably fewer and farther between as one moves from the outskirts to the center of Sadr City. And in the heart of the slum, Mahdi Army fighters in yellow shirts operate checkpoints alongside Iraqi soldiers. "But it's not cooperation," laughs Mohanid, a Mahdi Army fighter. Most of the Iraqi soldiers have their faces covered to conceal their identities. At another intersection, a dozen young militia members...
...young men, pulls up next to him at a street corner. Above it, a billboard on the median depicts four young martyrs - all killed fighting the Americans, according to Mohanid. One holds a gun and is draped in ammunition, and like most other martyr billboards around the neighborhood, al-Sadr's picture floats next to them. Unlike in Basra, where his portrait has been torn down from many street corners, the cleric's picture in Sadr City remains ubiquitous, and graffiti on the walls reads: "Long live al-Sadr" and "Saulat al-Sadr" - Charge of al-Sadr - the Mahdi Army...
Along one block, about 35 displaced Iraqi Shi'ite families from other neighborhoods occupy makeshift homes built with monetary help from the Sadr office. Most of them fled predominantly Sunni neighborhoods in and around Baghdad like al-Dora and Abu Ghraib when a rash of sectarian killings broke out in 2006. "This house was built by the Sadr office, not by the government," says Mohanid proudly...
...demonstration that followed Friday's prayer, a crowd of men rallied - as they often do - with Iraqi flags and portraits of al-Sadr raised above their heads, chanting, "No to America! No to the agreement! No to the occupation!" Saadi, the MP, says the Mahdi Army will never turn violent in Sadr City again. But he says it could carry out more demonstrations "if the government pushes the people and doesn't fulfill its promises." The Interior Ministry official is more wary, saying, "People want services like electricity, water and medical care ... They are fed up with the military...