Word: sadr
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...appeared to be unraveling, Thursday, as insurgents failed to meet the U.S. demand that they surrender their heavy weapons. But a renewed outbreak of fighting there would likely further polarize Iraqi public opinion against the Coalition. In the Shiite holy city of Najaf, meanwhile, the wanted rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr appeared to be mimicking the Fallujah insurgents' taunting of the U.S. military, breaking off negotiations in the expectation that the Coalition would pay a heavy political price for going into the city with guns blazing...
...caretaker government. That's hardly a hypothetical problem, as the current standoffs at Fallujah and Najaf show: Iraqi Governing Council leaders, including one or two tapped for top positions in the caretaker government, objected furiously to U.S. tactics at Fallujah and against the Shiite supporters of the cleric Moqtada Sadr. The fact that the U.S. military backed off in both Najaf and Fallujah to allow Iraqi politicians space to try and resolve those standoffs through negotiations is telling. While the U.S. military is following the natural instinct of an occupying army to establish its authority and protect its forces...
Iranian insiders say the regime doesn't want to see an unpredictable demagogue like al-Sadr amass power in Iraq. "Al-Sadr is too radical for a majority of Iranians," says a source in Tehran with close ties to Iranian President Mohammed Khatami. At the same time, a chaotic power vacuum could jeopardize Iranian hopes of profiting in the new Iraq. Iran sees Iraq as a critical trading pipeline with the rest of the Middle East, from which it has been locked out for decades...
...Iraq. That means, above all, restoring the security situation. We can't hope to meet the June 30 deadline unless the country is relatively secure. This will require decisive removal of the groups that have taken over certain towns. It will require decisive defeat of the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and of anyone else willing to take up arms against the coalition. We must commit the armed forces necessary...
MUQTADA AL-SADR: A young militant cleric calls upon his followers to "terrorize your enemy...