Iraq Rebel Cleric Reins In Militia; Motives at Issue
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Moktada al-Sadr, the founder of the Mahdi Army, seems to be cooperating with the latest effort to pacify Baghdad, but why he is doing so remains unclear.
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Iraqi rebel cleric Moqtada al Sadr has officially handed control of the Imam Ali shrine in the city of Najaf to representatives of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
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Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his fighters Thursday to hand control of a revered Najaf shrine to top Shiite religious authorities, hours after U.S. forces bombed militant positions and Iraq's prime minister made a "final call" for the cleric's militia to surrender.
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NAJAF, Iraq : Iraq&#39;s top Shiite Muslim clerics, back in control of Najaf&#39;s Imam Ali shrine after a four-month militia occupation, met amid the ruins of the city as life spluttered back to normality.
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The radical Shi'ite cleric's sudden reemergence bodes ill for the Iraqi government and U.S. 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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Prominent members of rebel Shi'ite  cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's movement have become the latest  targets in a shadowy insurgency gripping Iraq, raising fears of  more unrest in a country plagued by violence.
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Rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr  has ordered his militia to end attacks on U.S. and Iraqi  government forces and will soon unveil plans to pursue his  goals through politics rather than conflict, aides said on  Monday.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq  - Rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada  al-Sadr has ordered his militia to end attacks on U.S. and  Iraqi government forces and will soon unveil plans to pursue  his goals through politics rather than conflict, aides said  Monday.
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The leader of Iraq's biggest Shiite militia movement has quietly resumed seminary studies toward attaining the title of ayatollah Â a goal that could make firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army an even more formidable power broker in Iraq.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militiamen loyal to rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday removed their weapons from the revered Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf as part of an arrangement aimed at ending a 2-week-old anti-U.S. uprising centered on the holy site...
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For a moment this week, it looked as if Moqtada al-Sadr - the leader of a Shiite rebellion against the US presence in Iraq - might
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NAJAF, Iraq - Militiamen loyal to rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr removed weapons from the revered Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf but remained in control of the holy site Friday amid efforts to end their 2-week-old uprising.    Fighters from al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia were inside the shrine but left their guns outside...
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Hoping to end weeks of fighting in Najaf, Iraq's top Shiite cleric unexpectedly returned home 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 the fighting.
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KUFA, Iraq -- Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr resurfaced yesterday after months in hiding and delivered a fiery sermon in this Shi'ite Muslim holy city in which he reiterated his demand for the immediate departure of US forces and called for unity among Iraqis.
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NAJAF, Iraq - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accepted a peace plan Wednesday that would disarm his militia and remove them from their hideout in a revered shrine, raising hopes of resolving a crisis that has angered many of Iraq's majority Shiites and threatened to undermine the fledgling interim government.    But al-Sadr has made contradictory statements in the past, and aides to the cleric said he still wanted to negotiate details of the deal to end two weeks of fighting between his forces and U.S.-led troops...
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Iraq's interim government said it  had defused a Shi'ite rebellion in Najaf Friday without a shot  being fired, but rebel militiamen denied police had seized the  city's sacred Imam Ali Mosque from their control.