Word: sadr
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...blunt: the U.S. military campaign to stabilize Iraq has failed. We have lost control of Anbar province, the Sunni stronghold. We are losing the battle for Baghdad. Muqtada al-Sadr's militia has taken control in several predominantly Shi'ite provinces. The government in Baghdad is near collapse. Sadr's support is the only real power base that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has left. If the political equation isn't changed soon, it is likely that Sadr will emerge as the de jure leader of Shi'ite Iraq. This will certainly lead to a full-scale civil...
...able to capture. We are negotiating in Jordan with Baathist representatives of the Sunni insurgency; we're trying to split them off from the al-Qaeda-in-Mesopotamia terrorists, and we may succeed if a re-Baathification program is put in place. It is less well known that Sadr's Shi'ite militia, the Mahdi Army, also has a strong Baathist component. U.S. military intelligence estimates that upwards of 30% of Sadr's militia leaders are former members of Saddam's armed forces. There is communication, and occasionally collaboration, between these Sunni and Shi'ite Baathists. In the spring...
...long shot, Mr. President. There are many obstacles. The most immediate is Muqtada al-Sadr, who must be removed from the equation. We cannot be the agency of his removal, of course, but Sadr has many enemies, including rivals within his own organization. The other Shi'ite parties will also be obstacles-and, of course, the Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani will need to be assuaged-but the strength of these groups has diminished as Sadr's power has increased in the past year, and it is possible they can be brought into the tent. The threat...
Iraq After Saddam Hussein's ouster, many local leaders sought to erase part of his legacy. One prominent example: the sprawling, poor Baghdad neighborhood of Saddam City became Sadr City. The name honors Shi'ite leader Muqtada al-Sadr's father, a revered cleric who was killed during Saddam's regime...
...Over the past 10 days more than 2,000 U.S. soldiers and 1,000 Iraqi security forces have been searching neighborhoods east of the Tigris River in Baghdad for al-Taie. U.S. troops cordoned off the Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City in the search before Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told commanders he wanted the roadblocks taken down Tuesday. The top American military spokesman in Iraq Major General William Caldwell said Thursday that one U.S. soldier had been killed during the search and eight wounded. Caldwell added that the U.S. has "credible intelligence" on who is behind the kidnapping...