U.S. could face a showdown with al-Sadr
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Putting more U.S. soldiers in the streets of Baghdad risks a new showdown with a radical anti-American cleric who has modeled his movement after Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas.
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NAJAF, Iraq - U.S. tanks and snipers took up positions near the revered Imam Ali Shrine and engaged in fierce battles with militants Monday as the U.S...
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American commanders are preparing new battle plans for breaking Moktada al-Sadr's grip on the holy city of Najaf.
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U.S. forces will turn over security to Iraqi authorities in the southern Shiite province of Karbala on Monday, the American commander for the area said, despite fighting between rival militia factions that has killed dozens.
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NAJAF, Iraq - U.S. forces Monday drew near Najaf's revered Shiite shrine, engaging in fierce battles with followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as the military stepped up pressure on the insurgents to hand over the holy site to religious authorities...
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This week's intense clashes between the Iraqi army and a Shiite militia are part of a strategy to whittle away the power of a radical cleric. But the high-risk gambit could trigger more fighting across the Shiite south &#151; at a time when the cleric's stronghold in the capital is virtually off-limits.
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NAJAF, Iraq - U.S. forces and Shiite militants fought fierce battles in Najaf on Monday, with airstrikes near a revered shrine and exchanges of mortar fire and artillery, as the U.S...
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As the standoff in Najaf continues between Iraqi, US and coalition troops and forces under the command of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, Iraq&#39;s top Shiite
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Iraq's prime minister is weighing whether to sever his alliance with a radical Shiite cleric blamed for much of the country's sectarian violence, aides said Wednesday. But isolating Muqtada al-Sadr could lead to more deadly attacks, even if the strategy could produce a more stable administration over time.
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BAGHDAD The American-backed Iraqi government and representatives of Moktada al-Sadr, the rebellious Shiite cleric, continued talks on Monday, seeking a peace plan for the vast, volatile Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City that could set a precedent for
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BAGHDAD, May 26 -- U.S. and British troops battled Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia in Baghdad and the southern city of Basra on Friday and Saturday, killing about a dozen fighters shortly after the influential Shiite cleric demanded a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
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Radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr  may have escaped the U.S.-led military siege of the Imam Ali  Mosque in Najaf, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said on Friday.
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The fight with renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is not over and the US military must retake his stronghold in Baghdad&#39;s Sadr City slum, a top US commander said Thursday.
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The U.S. military should not provoke the Mehdi Army militia of anti-U.S. Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr into a return to the widespread violence that took Iraq to the brink of civil war, a report said on Friday.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Firebrand Iraqi cleric Moqtada  al-Sadr is facing his "final hours" before a military strike  unless he meets demands that include renouncing violence and  handing in weapons, Iraq's government said on Thursday.
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Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr could end a ban on his militia's activities because of rising anger over U.S. and Iraqi raids against his followers, an aide said Friday amid concerns about rising violence and clashes between rival factions in the mainly Shiite south.
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Radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is in Iraq and has not left for Iran, his aides said on Wednesday, after American officials suggested he may have departed to avoid an offensive against militants.