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By Garry Wills
$18.45
By Richard Schickel
$18
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Illustration by Alexander Augst
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Moqtada al-Sadr, who is either the sharpest thorn in the side of U.S. forces in Iraq or the linchpin of an Iraqi parliament frequently on the verge of coming apart—or both—has ordered his followers not to attack U.S. troops in order to make sure the occupiers leave as quickly as possible.
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AP / Karim Kadim
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By Scott Ritter — Moqtada al-Sadr’s ability to influence Iraq’s political affairs has earned him the title “kingmaker,” but his true aspiration is to be king. He stands a reasonable chance of succeeding.
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AP photo / Francois Mori
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Despite two major challenges to the U.S. from Iraq on Friday—in the form of a breakdown in negotiations between the two nations over long-term plans for U.S. involvement there and Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s renewed call to arms against U.S. forces in Iraq—President Bush maintained a positive tone while discussing American-Iraqi relations on the Parisian leg of his current European tour.
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swissinfo.org
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Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintained his defiant stance against the U.S. as intense fighting in Sadr City and Najaf claimed more lives this weekend, including that of a Sadr relative and supporter, Riyad al-Nuri.
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American and British troops joined forces with Iraqi government troops battling the Mahdi Army in Basra and Sadr City on Saturday as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s offensive, launched Tuesday, passed the fifth day with little sign of reprieve and a great deal riding on its outcome.
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Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his militia to redouble efforts to oust U.S. forces and called on Iraq’s army and police to join him. The U.S. military, meantime, said 10 American troops were killed over the weekend, including six on Sunday.
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Moqtada al-Sadr pulled his forces off the streets of Baghdad in response to the U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown, but a devastating bombing at a university Sunday and other Sunni attacks have caused the cleric to rethink his position: “Here we are, watching car bombs continue to explode to harvest thousands of innocent lives from our beloved people in the middle of a security plan controlled by an occupier.”
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msnbc.com
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An anonymous U.S. official said on Tuesday that prominent Shiite cleric and Iraqi political figure Moqtada al-Sadr had fled to Iran in order to escape either an American crackdown or fringe elements of his own militia. But several Iraqi officials on Wednesday, also speaking anonymously, said al-Sadr was still in Iraq.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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The U.S. military says a series of 52 operations over 45 days led to the capture of some 600 militants and 16 leaders of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. With some estimates placing the size of the Shiite militia at 60,000, that leaves only 59,384 to go.
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From weekly.ahram.org.eg
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Moqtada al-Sadr, who led two deadly uprisings against American troops, now controls enough seats in the Iraqi parliament to be a puppet master. Read the New York Times profile, or check out Truthdig’s Robert Scheer on the ominous implications of Sadr’s ascendancy.
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AP
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By Robert Scheer — There is no way to soft-pedal it: The astounding rise of an anti-American firebrand like Moqtada al-Sadr is an indicator of how wide and complete a political defeat pro-Western forces have suffered in Iraq.
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Another Memorial Day in This Endless War
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