Word: sadr
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...weeks the U.S. and Iraqi militaries have been striking piecemeal at an enemy they are not even allowed to name: Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army. And after fierce clashes Monday, it appears that Iraq's government and military is willing to go only so far in their efforts to rein in the powerful Shi'ite militia...
...Monday Sadr's Shi'ite militia ambushed Iraqi Army soldiers in the southern city of Diwaniya and killed about 25 of them in the ensuing battle. According to a U.S. military official at least eight civilians also died. Reports on the number of militiamen killed varied wildly, with early reports claiming as few as five and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki claiming...
...prepared to fight costly battles to defeat committed Shi'ite militiamen, or they are willing to cede control of neighborhoods and cities to the militias. In Diwaniya, it now seems, the government has chosen the path of least resistance, gaining a measure of calm in the city on Sadr's terms...
...Iraqi government and U.S. military take pains to say that their operations do not target the Mahdi Army or Sadr - just individuals and gangs that claim the affiliation for their own purposes...
...According to a Sadr representative in Diwaniya, the militia commander whose arrest sparked the violence will be tried in court and not held indefinitely as a detainee. Now that the military has backed off, the Iraqi legal system may do the same. Sadr himself was targeted for arrest in 2004 on the charge of ordering the assassination of a rival. The charge was ultimately shelved when he struck a deal and said he would join the political process...