BAGHDAD -- It was one of the deadliest insurgent groups in Iraq in recent years, an Iranian-backed militia that bombed American military convoys and bases, assassinated dozens of Iraqi officials and tried to kidnap Americans even as the last soldiers withdrew. But now the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is welcoming the...
BAGHDAD -- A powerful political group led by the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr called on Monday for Parliament to be dissolved and early elections to be held, the first open challenge to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki from within his Shiite coalition in an escalating political crisis. Leaders of Mr. Sadr's faction said that scrapping...
BAGHDAD -- In a classroom in Sadr City, the bustling neighborhood of the Shiite poor, dozens of men in white shirts and black pants received the most basic of Islamic religious instruction: how to wash before praying. ''After you wash your left hand, you must be sure to avoid any water drops on the right hand,'' declared the instructor. The men,...
Muqtada al-Sadr (født 12. august 1973) er en religiøs shialeder og leder af Mahdi-militsen i Irak. Han er søn af Storayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr og svigersøn til Storayatollah Mohammad Baqir As-Sadr.