Sistani Heads to Najaf, Blasts at Nearby Mosque
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Iraq's most influential Shi'ite  cleric headed for the battered city of Najaf on Thursday to try  to persuade rebels holed up inside a sacred shrine to leave and  end a three-week uprising that has killed hundreds.
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Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani plans to lead a march to the shrine in Najaf that has been commandeered by rebel Mahdi fighters.
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Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq&#39;s foremost Shiite cleric, wants US-led military forces to leave Najaf and nearby Kufa as a condition for establishing peace with cleric Moqtada al
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Iraq&#39;s most influential Shi&#39;ite cleric headed for the battered city of Najaf on Thursday to try to persuade rebels holed up inside a sacred shrine to leave and end a three-week uprising that has killed hundreds.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - A large fire was blazing in Najaf  Saturday after a series of blasts and gunfire as a U.S. AC-130  plane circled overhead, a Reuters witness said.
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Strong blasts were heard in the besieged city of Najaf early on Sunday as U.S. military planes unleashed cannon and howitzer fire.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Iraq's most revered cleric arrived  in Najaf Thursday to try to end a bloody three-week uprising as  tensions were inflamed by attacks on Shi'ite marchers that  killed at least 74 people and wounded 315.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric made a  sudden return to the country Wednesday and said he had a plan  to end an uprising in the "burning city" of Najaf, where  fighting is creeping ever closer to its holiest shrine.
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Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric returned to the country from Britain on Wednesday and his aides called for a nationwide march to Najaf to end nearly three weeks of fierce fighting between U.S. forces and Shiite militants in this holy city.
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Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has just arrived in Najaf to try to end the stand-off involving Shia fighters led by the radical cleric, Moqtada Sadr.
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KUFA, Iraq - A mortar barrage slammed into a mosque filled Iraqis preparing to march on the embattled city of Najaf, killing 27 people and wounding 63 here Thursday hours before the nation's top Shiite cleric was expected to arrive in area with a peace initiative.    The attack on the main mosque in Kufa - just a few miles from Najaf - dampened renewed hopes for a rapid resolution to the three-week crisis in Najaf...
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Sporadic gunfire, explosions and a US bombing raid shook the city of Najaf today as militants retained control of a revered shrine, raising fears that a plan to end the crisis could collapse amid bickering between Shiite leaders.
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NAJAF, Iraq - Iraq's top Shiite cleric made a dramatic return to Najaf at the head of a massive convoy Thursday hoping to end three weeks of fighting in the holy city, but hours earlier a mortar barrage slammed into a mosque filled with Iraqis preparing to join his march, killing 27 people and wounding 63.    Along with the mortar attack, another group of thousands of marchers heading into Najaf from its sister-city Kufa came under fire from an Iraqi National Guard base...
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NAJAF, Iraq - Iraq's top Shiite cleric unexpectedly returned to Iraq from Britain on Wednesday armed with a new peace initiative and a call for Iraqis across the country to march on the holy city to demand an end to weeks of fighting in Najaf.    But a mortar attack on the main mosque in the nearby city of Kufa killed 25 people and wounded 60 others Thursday, hospital officials and witnesses said, a blow to hopes that the crisis could be resolved peacefully...
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NAJAF, Iraq, August 25.âThe Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has called on Iraqis to go to the sacred city of Najaf to expel the US troops and save it from attacks by the occupying forces, stated Hamad Al-Jaffaf, head of his cabinet, on Al Arabiya television
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Najaf - Thirty people were killed in a car bomb blast on Sunday near a major religious shrine in the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Najaf, a hospital official said, shortly after a similar attack in the sister city of Karbala.
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KUFA, Iraq - A mortar barrage slammed into a mosque filled with Iraqis preparing to march on the embattled city of Najaf, killing 27 people and wounding 63 Thursday, while the nation's top Shiite cleric arrived at the gates of the holy city in a massive convoy hoping to end three weeks of fighting.  ..