Iraq PM says security forces control holy city
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KERBALA, Iraq  - Iraq's prime minister flew to the holy city of Kerbala on Wednesday and declared order had been restored after inter-Shi'ite gunbattles there killed 52 people and sent hundreds of thousands of pilgrims fleeing.
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UK Prime Minister Tony Blair says Iraq is seeing a battle between democracy and terror, as he visits Baghdad.
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NAJAF, Iraq - Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi made a "final call" Thursday to Shiite militants in Najaf to disarm and withdraw from a revered shrine or face a massive onslaught by Iraqi forces to root them out.    The last-ditch warning came shortly after the militants' leader, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, rejected those demands with a vow to seek "martyrdom or victory." Just hours before al-Sadr's defiant statement, fighters presumably from his Mahdi Army militia bombarded a Najaf police station with mortar rounds, killing seven policemen and injuring 31...
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KERBALA, Iraq  - Iraqi forces imposed tight security on the city of Kerbala as 2.5 million pilgrims marked the climax of a major Shi'ite rite on Saturday, a day after gunmen attacked worshippers and police in other southern cities.
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U.S. and Iraqi security forces have killed around 400 suspected militants since the start of a major crackdown to stem violence in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Saturday.
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Security will be increased at Baghdad's mosques and other holy sites ahead of the Eid al-Adha holiday that begins Wednesday, an Iraqi official said.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Fighters loyal to rebel Shi'ite  cleric Moqtada al-Sadr were firmly in control of Najaf's Imam  Ali mosque on Saturday, giving the lie to government claims  that police had taken control of the shrine.
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Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told lawmakers Monday that Iraqi forces were not ready to take over security from the U.S. military across the country.
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NAJAF, Iraq - Prime Minister Ayad Allawi issued a "final call" Thursday to Shiite insurgents to disarm and withdraw from a revered shrine after his government threatened a massive onslaught by Iraqi forces. As the peace deal for Najaf unraveled, militants bombarded a police station with mortar rounds, killing seven police and injuring 31 others...
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U.S. and Iraqi troops took control of government and police buildings in Samarra early on Friday after insurgents had undermined security in the Iraqi city, the U.S. military said.
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BAGHDAD -- Iraq's interim prime minister warned yesterday that insurgents are trying to foment sectarian civil war as well as derail elections, while thousands of mourners turned out for funerals in the Shi'ite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala a day after car bombs killed 67 people.
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NAJAF, Iraq -- Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his fighters yesterday to hand control of a revered Najaf shrine to top Shi'ite religious authorities, hours after US forces bombed militant positions and Iraq's prime minister made a ''final call&quot; for the cleric's militia to surrender.
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Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki told his security forces on Tuesday to show no mercy toward insurgents in a security crackdown in Baghdad.
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Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday his government had stopped Iraq sliding into civil war and said violence in and around Baghdad had plunged under a U.S.-backed security crackdown.
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A powerful Shi'ite Muslim leader in Iraq called on Friday for U.S.-backed, mainly Sunni neighborhood patrols to be more tightly curbed under government control.
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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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Iraq&#39;s interim prime minister warned Monday that insurgents are trying to foment sectarian civil war and derail elections, as thousands of mourners turned out for funerals in the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala a day after car bombs