Sistani to Lead Peace Mission to Embattled Iraq City
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric was due  to travel to Najaf on Thursday after making a surprise return  to the country to try to end bitter fighting creeping ever  closer to the city's holiest shrine.
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MARK COLVIN: To Iraq where the Shi&#39;ite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani is on his way back to the holy city of Najaf, with around ten thousand followers joining his convoy from Basra in Iraq&#39;s south.
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Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani plans to lead a march to the shrine in Najaf that has been commandeered by fighters loyal to Moktada al-Sadr.
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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 radical Iraqi cleric leading a  Shi'ite uprising agreed Wednesday to disarm his militia and  leave one of the country's holiest Islamic shrines after  warnings of an onslaught by government forces.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - The leader of a Shi&#39;ite uprising in Iraq agreed Wednesday to leave a holy shrine encircled by US marines, hours after the interim government threatened to storm it and drive out his fighters.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - A pared-down delegation of Iraqis arrived in Najaf by helicopter Tuesday to present radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr with a peace proposal aimed at ending the violent insurgency wracking the holy city.    Despite the delegation's presence there, fighting intensified in Najaf, with at least one U.S...
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi tribal leaders, Shiite politicians, government officials and U.S. military officers agreed Sunday to a one-day truce for peace talks to end violence in the Baghdad's Sadr City slum, a day after 10 people died in fighting there, Iraqi officials said...
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Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accepted a peace plan yesterday that calls for his militiamen to disarm and leave their hideout in a revered Shiite shrine, raising hopes of ending a battle that has threatened to undermine Iraq&#39;s interim government.
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BASRA, Iraq  - Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric headed  for Najaf on Thursday to try to get rebels inside a holy shrine  to leave and bring an end to three weeks of bloody fighting  that has killed hundreds.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - A radical Iraqi cleric leading a  Shi'ite uprising agreed on Wednesday to disarm his militia and  leave one of the country's holiest Islamic shrines after  warnings of an onslaught by government forces.
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The surprise return to Iraq of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country&#39;s most powerful religious leader, may help him win back support eroded by a radical Shi&#39;ite uprising.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi delegates delivered a peace proposal to aides of Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf on Tuesday, but the militant cleric refused to meet with them as explosions, gunfire and a U.S. bombing run persisted in the holy city...
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric made a  sudden return to the country on 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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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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Iraqi political leaders arrived in the embattled city of Najaf Tuesday on a mission to persuade rebellious Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr to disband his militia, vacate a religious shrine and participate in the country's political process.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi announced plans Monday to extend a cash-for-weapons program for Shiite fighters in Baghdad's Sadr City to cities nationwide in an attempt to disarm the country.    In Fallujah, the focal point of the Sunni rebellion, hopes that peace talks could resume there quickly were dashed when the city's chief negotiator, Sheik Khaled al-Jumeili, ruled out restarting talks soon despite his release Monday from U.S...