Word: sadr
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Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki hardened his stance against Shi'ite militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr Sunday, airing draft legislation that could potentially bar Sadrists from participating in fall elections...
...measure, approved by Maliki's cabinet, would prevent political parties with militias from running in provincial races slated for October. That means politicians loyal to Sadr, who include at present a sizable bloc in parliament, would be ineligible because of their connection to Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. Some observers, however, were skeptical the measure would go anywhere, since one of the other key Shi'ite parties, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, has its own militia, the Badr Brigade...
Some Sadrists suspect the Badr Brigade, which dominates Iraqi security forces throughout much of southern Iraq, is behind this latest assassination. Still, on Friday, rumors circulated among some Sadrists in Najaf that the assassination may have come from within their own faction. Moqtada al-Sadr, however, publicly blamed the United States for Nouri's death. "The occupier wants to cause sedition," said Sheikh Abdel Hadi al-Mohammedawi, an official at the Sadr office in the southern city of Karbala, speaking on behalf of Sadr. But Mohammedawi, also said that Sadr is urging his followers to stay calm...
Meanwhile in Baghdad, tension continues to boil in the vast Shi'ite slum of Sadr City. The neighborhood was to have remained locked down until Saturday, when the government was set to lift a curfew that has been in place since fighting broke out between government forces and the Mahdi Army at the end of last month. Residents of the beleaguered neighborhood - where American forces are assisting the Iraqi military in daily operations - say the situation remains bleak, and most are subsisting without water or electricity. "It was quieter today, but the streets are empty. We heard some bombing from...
...said Friday was the twelfth day Sadr City, home to millions of Baghdad's poor, came under U.S. air strikes. Friday morning, the fortified Green Zone compound, which houses the U.S. Embassy and most Iraqi government offices, was still coming under mortar fire, believed to have been launched by Mahdi Army fighters in Sadr City...