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...Mr Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia and other armed groups loyal to the 41-year-old cleric’s family of religious leaders fought against US troops from shortly after their 2003 invasion until their 2011 withdrawal...
...Mr Sadr’s Mahdi Army, the largest Shia militia, had not entered the fight yet, he said, but would hold parades across Shia provinces, including in Baghdad, on Saturday....
...The prime minister’s political opponents have suggested a number of possible replacements: Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shia former vice-president; Hussain al-Shahristani, the Shia deputy prime minister responsible...
...It is built around the Supreme Council and the Mahdi Army of Moqtada al-Sadr, the maverick Shia cleric who has been burnishing his theological credentials in Iran....
...That is why the offensive is targeting Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi army....
...In that time, say US military officials and Sunni Arabs, the ministry employed militiamen from the radical Shia Mahdi Army in its security force, and provided them with political protection....
...The rivalry between the two groups may be calmed by a declaration made on Saturday by the leaders of the two parties, SIIC’s Abdel Aziz al-Hakim and the Mahdi Army’s Muqtada al-Sadr, in which they called...
...The SIIC-Mahdi Army rivalry may be calmed by a declaration made on Saturday by the leaders of the two parties, SIIC’s Abdel Aziz al-Hakim and the Mahdi Army’s Mr Sadr, in which they called on their followers...
...This intra-Shia rivalry partly explains the chaos now enveloping the shrinking British force in south Iraq, where the Hakims’ Badr militia, Moqtada’s Mahdi Army, and Fadhila (Virtue), a Basra-based Sadrist...
...In Iraq, the December 2005 elections disgorged a Shia-led coalition built around the Da’wa (or Islamic Call) party of Nouri al-Maliki, and the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq led by Abdelaziz al-Hakim....
...Aug 29 2003: Car bomb in Najaf kills more than 120 people, including Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir al-Hakim, a Shia leader....
...The Sadr dynasty, now headed by the young radical Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi army, wants to be the Shia leadership of a united Iraq....
...Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi army has largely stood aside during the present US troop “surge”....
...He told me: ”Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the [rival Shia party of] Abdel Aziz [al-Hakim] and [Sunni vice-president] Tariq al-Hashemi have made a pact with the American president George Bush to kill...
...US and Iraqi forces detained Hakim al-Zamili, the deputy health minister, during a raid on the health ministry building in central Baghdad on Thursday, Iraqi officials said....
...Iran has bet less on the unpredictable Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi army, which has, in any case, largely stood aside during the present troop surge. So, in sum....
...Sciri, Mr Hakim’s party, has its own militia....
...Instead, the new assembly might choose a layman such as Ibrahim al-Jaafari, of the Dawa party, or Adil Abd al-Mahdi of Sciri, rather than the Sciri leader, Abdulaziz al-Hakim....
...The government has staked its political future on proving it can put down the six-day uprising by Mr Sadr's Mahdi army....
...The party’s leader, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, is number one on the Alliance list, which has been unofficially backed by Mr Sistani.Although Mr Hakim is himself a cleric, the party has lately been pushing one...
...The only native Iraqi among them is Mohammad Said al-Hakim....
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