Sadr aide freed as Iraq seeks pre-election calm
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The US military has freed a top aide to rebel Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in a gesture that could help the interim government&#39;s efforts to calm rebel-held strongholds before elections due in January.
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Anti-American Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has left Iraq for Iran ahead of a security crackdown in Baghdad, a U.S. officials said Tuesday
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BAGHDAD -- Moqtada al-Sadr yesterday ordered his Mahdi Army militia to stop fighting US and Iraqi government forces and launch a political movement, aides said, raising hopes that the Shi'ite cleric's poor, urban followers will end their violent opposition to the US-backed government and embrace elections scheduled for next year.
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An adviser to the Iraqi PM says radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr is in Iran, but says he will be back soon.
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Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most senior Shia cleric in Iraq, unexpectedly returned to his homeland yesterday after nearly three weeks overseas during which anarchy has rapidly taken hold.
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Iraq&#39;s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, made a dramatic return to Najaf on Thursday and swiftly won agreement from a rebel cleric and the government to end three weeks of fighting between his militia and US-Iraqi forces.
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Calm reigned in Najaf Friday, as Shi&#39;ite militants abandoned the holy Imam Ali shrine in accordance with a peace deal brokered by Iraq&#39;s top Shi&#39;ite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
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The U.S. military spokesman in Iraq said Wednesday that all indications showed that radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr remained in Iran.
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Rebel Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will  remain a free man after he agreed a peace deal to end an  uprising in the holy city of Najaf, Minister of State Kasim  Daoud told a news conference early Friday.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Saturday they will begin handing weapons over to Iraqi police next week in a major step toward ending weeks of fighting with American soldiers in Baghdad's Sadr City district.    Meanwhile, there were reports that British hostage Kenneth Bigley tried to escape before he was beheaded...
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Sadr City, once a symbol of Shiite subjugation, is recovering. Many residents credit the Mahdi Army.
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NAJAF, Iraq - Guns were largely silent in Najaf for the first time in weeks and thousands of Iraqis thronged the revered Imam Ali shrine Friday after Iraq's top Shiite cleric made a dramatic return to this holy city and won agreement from a rebel cleric and the government to end the fighting between his militia and U.S.-Iraqi forces.    The renegade Muqtada al-Sadr accepted the proposal in a face-to-face meeting Thursday night with the 75-year-old Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani...
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The journalist was released after Moktada al-Sadr intervened, even as his Shiite militia engaged in heavy fighting in Najaf.
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The Syrian Catholic archbishop of Mosul was freed today, a day after his abduction in Iraq, according to reports from the Vatican. But with Iraq's first election just 12 days away, violence aimed at derailing the process continued today.
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The US says radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has left Iraq for Iran but his aides deny the claim.
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Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, made a dramatic return to Najaf on Thursday and swiftly won agreement from a rebel cleric and the government to end three weeks of fighting between his militia and U.S.-Iraqi forces.
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Aides to the country&#39;s most powerful Shiite leader said they had reached a tentative agreement Thursday to end the three-week siege in this holy Shiite city, following a day