Sistani Urges Supporters to Wait at Najaf Gates
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Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urged his supporters converging on Najaf on Thursday not to enter the battered holy city until he arrived, a senior aide said.
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Anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his followers are ready to leave the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf if American-led forces pull back from the holy Shi&#39;ite site, an aide to Sadr says.
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ABOUT 1000 protesters marched through Najaf&#39;s old quarter today to demand that Moqtada Sadr and his aides leave this holy city ravaged by fighting between the radical cleric&#39;s followers and US and Iraqi troops.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - A delegation of Iraqis arrived in Najaf on helicopters Tuesday to present radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr with a peace proposal aimed at ending the violent insurgency wracking the holy city.    The peace proposal, cobbled together Iraq's National Conference in Baghdad, demanded that al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia put down its arms and join Iraq's political process in exchange for amnesty...
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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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NAJAF, Iraq  - With his militants and human  shields holed up inside one of Shi'ite Islam's most sacred  shrines, radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is playing a  shrewd waiting game before an expected American-led offensive.
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BAGHDAD -- Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim parties and the religious leadership headed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani yesterday rejected a demand by other communities for a delay in nationwide elections scheduled for Jan. 30, in an escalating dispute that magnifies the country's ethnic and sectarian fault lines.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric arrived  in Najaf Thursday to try to end a bloody three-week uprising as  tensions rose sharply following attacks in a nearby town that  killed 45 people and wounded 170.
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NAJAF, Iraq - Sporadic gunfire echoed through Najaf on Friday after a night of heavy U.S. bombing that saw radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr call on his fighters to hand control of a revered Najaf shrine to top Shiite religious authorities...
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AGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 17  A delegation of Iraqis was delayed for security reasons today but still intended to visit Najaf to try to convince a rebellious Shiite cleric and his militia to evacuate a shrine in the holy city and end ...
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Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's  most powerful religious leader, has expressed concern that  nationwide elections could be delayed and may withhold his  support in protest over the planned vote, the New York Times  reported on Thursday.
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26 August 2004 -- Iraq&#39;s top Shi&#39;ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, arrived in the city of Al-Najaf today in a bid to end a weeks-long conflict between US forces and militiamen loyal to Shi&#39;ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
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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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NAJAF, Aug 17: An Iraqi peace delegation urged Shia leader Moqtada Sadr on Tuesday to call off his uprising in Najaf, and on the battlefront US troops pounded militia positions near the country&#39;s holiest sites.
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BAGHDAD -- Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr signaled that he would accept a plea from Iraqi leaders to dissolve his militia and vacate the sacred Imam Ali shrine in Najaf. But he asked for further negotiations with Iraq's interim government to work out details, according to a letter from Sadr's office that was delivered yesterday to a political conference here.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Rebel Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr  on Friday ordered his men inside Najaf's Imam Ali mosque to lay  down their weapons and join thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims  outside the shrine.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Iraq&#39;s radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr refused on Tuesday to meet a delegation of Iraqi political and religious leaders seeking to end a rebellion in the holy city of Najaf and other parts of the country.