Word: sadr
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...that his death was confirmed, and by then about 80 bodies had been counted. With more than 150 injured, the main hospital in Najaf was straining to cope with the load. "This is a catastrophe for Iraqis," said Hassan al-Naji al-Moussawi, imam of the Mohsen Mosque in Sadr City, Baghdad's Shi'ite-dominated suburb, once known as Saddam City. "And for it to happen at the walls of the Imam Ali shrine, it's as if somebody has reached into the body of Iraq and cut off an organ...
That very moderation, however, made him suspect in the eyes of the larger, more radical Shi'ite organization, the Sadr Group, led by Muqtada al-Sadr, 29. Cooperation with the coalition is anathema to al-Sadr, whose power base lies among the poorest Shi'ite communities, especially in Sadr City. Descended from a line of venerated ayatullahs, two of whom were executed by Saddam's regime, al-Sadr has the one thing the Hakim brothers lacked: street cred. He speaks in the rough argot of the slums, and his sermons, usually given after Friday prayers, are delivered in a take...
...from the youth of the slums that al-Sadr is recruiting his private army, the Jaish-e-Mahdi, named after a historical Shi'ite leader who disappeared in the 9th century and will, the devout believe, return one day to restore justice to the world. Although he has said his soldiers will be "armed with faith" only, al-Sadr supporters say he is recruiting special regiments made up entirely of former military men, who are being issued weapons and ammunition. Al-Sadr sacked his chief representative in Sadr City, insiders say, because the man was thought to be too religious...
...coalition paid al-Sadr scant attention until two weeks ago, when an American helicopter tried to knock down a Shi'ite banner from a telecommunications tower in Sadr City. Al-Sadr was able to mobilize tens of thousands of Shi'ites in Baghdad's largest street protest since the end of the war. Even so, a Pentagon official in Iraq says, the CPA has not yet got the full measure of al-Sadr. With his vision of Islamic rule in Iraq, his deep hatred of Americans and his rapidly growing army, al-Sadr is, according to this official, "the most...
People in Najaf and other Shi'ite towns in southern Iraq think they know exactly what al-Sadr is capable of. In the days after Saddam's fall, his bodyguards were accused of knifing to death--at the gates of the mosque where al-Hakim was killed--the moderate cleric Abdul-Majid al-Khoei, who had just returned from exile in London. (At the time, al-Sadr told TIME that the bodyguards involved had been dismissed before the assassination and that he had nothing to do with the killing of al-Khoei.) In April, al-Sadr's supporters surrounded...