Gunmen watch over Iraqi shrine
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Gunmen still patrol the centre of Iraq's holy city of Najaf  after 16 days of fighting and delicate talks.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi police fired warning shots and barred vehicle traffic leading to Kufa on Friday, fearing an outbreak of violence as hundreds of worshippers descended on the holy city for the first weekly prayers since radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr relinquished control of its revered shrine under a peace deal.    Separately, France said it had received word that two French reporters held captive in Iraq were alive while one of their employers claimed the kidnappers had handed them over to an Iraqi opposition group, raising hopes that the hostages could soon be released...
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Fierce fighting broke out around a  shrine in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf Monday, and pieces of  shrapnel landed in the courtyard of the mosque held by  followers of a radical Shi'ite cleric, Reuters witnesses said.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Fierce fighting broke out in the  holy Iraqi city of Najaf Monday, with numerous explosions and  gunfire echoing around a sacred shrine held by followers of a  radical Shi'ite cleric, Reuters witnesses said.
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Just when you thought you knew the players in the war, a cult tries to take over the holy city of Najaf
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Iraqi police fired warning shots and barred vehicle traffic leading to Kufa on Friday, fearing an outbreak of violence as hundreds of worshippers descended on the holy city for the first weekly prayers since radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr relinquished control of its revered shrine under a peace deal.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Iraqi security forces advanced to  within 400 meters (yards) of Najaf's Imam Ali shrine on  Tuesday, a Reuters witness said.
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Militant supporters of radical Iraqi Shi&#39;ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr kept their hold on a sacred religious shrine Sunday as fighting flared around the holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad.
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NAJAF, Iraq - Thousands of pilgrims streamed into the Imam Ali Shrine on Friday and militants left, handing the keys to Shiite religious authorities after Iraq's top Shiite cleric brokered a peace deal to end three weeks of fighting in this holy city.    Dozens of Iraqi police and national guardsmen deployed around the compound of the walled, golden-domed shrine in the Old City Friday afternoon - but did not enter...
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U.S. forces continued to battle militiamen in neighborhoods around the sacred Imam Ali shrine on Wednesday as the Iraqi defense minister warned that a "decisive battle" would commence if the Mahdi Army of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr did not surrender.
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KERBALA, Iraq  - Iraqi forces imposed tight security on the city of Kerbala on Saturday for the climax of a major Shi'ite ceremony after gunmen from a Shi'ite cult attacked pilgrims and police in two other southern cities.
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Gunmen attacked a convoy of civilian trucks Friday, killing one guard, and a cache of arms was seized in a Baghdad mosque, officials said. Security forces detained 77 people across Iraq in a crackdown on sectarian and political extremists.
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NAJAF, Iraq -- A Shi'ite Muslim insurgency appeared to be weakening last night as Iraqi forces moved to within 200 yards of the revered Imam Ali Shrine and Iraq's defense minister once again demanded fighters loyal to a radical cleric surrender or face a violent raid.
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Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani resumed control over the Imam Ali shrine Friday while a final handful of militiamen loyal to a rebel Shiite cleric exited the compound after a deadly
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After the second high-profile attack on one of the country's most sacred Shi'ite shrines this year, a tense Baghdad braces for the fallout
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NAJAF, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi forces battled militants in Najaf on Tuesday and Iraqi National Guardsmen surrounded the holy city's Imam Ali Shrine, where insurgents loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been holed up for weeks...
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NAJAF, Iraq A delegation of Iraqis arrived here Tuesday to try to persuade a rebellious Shiite cleric and his militia to evacuate a shrine in this holy city and end fighting with US and Iraqi government forces.