Efforts to Avert Sectarian Reprisals After Shrine Attack
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Appeals for calm by Shiites and Sunnis, as well as American officials in Iraq, appeared to have headed off the risk of a new sectarian convulsion, at least for now.
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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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A day after attacks in the Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City killed more than 200, the new savage twist to Iraq's sectarian bloodshed promises to escalate the cycle of violence even further
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NAJAF, Iraq  - US warplanes pounded areas near a shrine where radical Shi&#39;ite militiamen were holed up early on Friday after their leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, defied a final demand from Iraq&#39;s interim prime minister to disarm.
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Violence throughout the country defied increased efforts to stanch the spread of sectarian bloodshed.
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Iraqi security forces moved to within 400 meters (yards) of a holy shrine in Najaf on Tuesday, just hours after the government warned Shi&#39;ite rebels inside they would be killed if they did not surrender.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - U.S. warplanes Thursday pounded  areas near a holy shrine where radical Shi'ite militia were  holed up after their leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, defied a final  demand from Iraq's interim prime minister to disarm.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - U.S. warplanes and artillery  pounded Shi'ite militia positions around a shrine in the Iraqi  city of Najaf, trying to break the will of rebels who have  defied the interim government for three weeks.
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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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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  - US warplanes pounded areas near a shrine early Friday where radical Shi&#39;ite militiamen were holed up after their leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, defied a final demand from Iraq&#39;s interim prime minister to disarm.
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sites of twin suicide car bombings a week ago, the chief of police in Najaf says. have been aimed at a US military convoy. an attempt to sow sectarian conflict between Shi&#39;ite and Sunni Muslims.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Fears of heavier fighting in Najaf grew on Wednesday after an Iraqi peace delegation failed to defuse a confrontation between US troops and militiamen holed up in a revered shrine in the city.
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NAJAF: Radical Shi&#39;ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has urged his Mehdi Army followers to keep fighting the US-led forces attacking Najaf, but said he was willing to hand over the city shrine to religious leaders.
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Attacks on Shia pilgrims in Iraq continue with at least nine people killed on their way to the holy city of Karbala.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Iraqi security forces tightened  their grip on the streets around a sacred shrine in Najaf  Tuesday after the government warned Shi'ite rebels inside they  would be killed if they did not surrender.
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Iraqi Shia leaders appealed to their supporters to show restraint yesterday after two deadly blasts targeted their religious centres in an apparent attempt to trigger civil war.