Three people were killed when a parked car rigged with explosives blew up near a Shiite shrine in the holy city of Najaf on Saturday, the Interior Ministry said.
As the curfew on Sadr City was set to be lifted, a Moqtada al-Sadr associate is killed, threatening Shi'ite violence
The surge has tamped down sectarian violence, but armed Shi'ite factions are using the calm to maneuver for advantage in the south
Thousands of anti-U.S. protesters marched in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Monday to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.
A powerful and radical Shiite cleric implored his followers Sunday to stop killing Iraqis and focus their violent efforts on ousting American forces from the war-torn nation.
Two suicide bombers detonated their explosives in a crowded market Thursday evening in Hilla, Iraq, killing 61 people and wounding 150, police said.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and other top Shiite religious figures were the apparent targets of a plot by a Muslim messianic cult intent on seizing the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Iraqi officials said.
A battle between U.S.-backed Iraqi troops and insurgents raged into Monday morning after Iraqi officials said they foiled a plot to attack pilgrims and kill leading clerics in the Shiite Muslim holy city.
A "terrorist and three of his associates" were detained by coalition forces in a raid in western Baghdad's Abu Ghraib neighborhood Thursday, the U.S. military said.
A car bomb detonated Thursday near the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, killing 10 people and wounding 39 others, police said.
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi was chased from a mosque Sunday in Najaf in what he said was an apparent attempt on his life.
A British civilian and nine Iraqis have been arrested by Iraq's border security force, a British military spokesman in the southern city of Basra told CNN Tuesday.
Insurgents in western Baghdad staged a sophisticated and well-coordinated strike against police checkpoints Wednesday, leaving 14 dead and dozens wounded, police said.
In the deadliest single insurgent attack of the Iraq war, a suicide car bombing killed 125 people Monday in Hilla where police recruits were waiting to get physicals, Iraqi government and health officials said.
As the Iraqi elections near, women are changing the face of politics.
Iraqi police said Monday they had arrested 50 people and set up checkpoints and roadblocks a day after car bombings in two of the holiest Shiite Muslim cities killed nearly 70 people.
Deadly car bombings on Sunday hit the Iraqi Shiite Muslim holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, killing 67 people, officials said.
A car bomb attack on an Army combat patrol killed seven Iraqi civilians Tuesday in the northern Iraqi city of Baiji, a military spokesman said.
U.S. forces and Iraqi police raided the office of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the south-central city of Najaf on Tuesday, arresting several aides and confiscating thousands of weapons, Najaf's governor said.
Four Iraqis were killed Saturday in separate incidents and the wife and three children of an Iraqi National Guard officer were kidnapped.
Thousands of demonstrators supporting -- and hundreds opposing -- Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets in Iraq on Friday as U.S. soldiers fought insurgents in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood and near Falluja.
Seven American Marines and three Iraqi guardsmen were killed by a suicide car bomb Monday as they patrolled on the outskirts of Falluja, the U.S. military said.
The Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera broadcast videotape Saturday showing two French journalists who apparently have been taken hostage in Iraq by a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq.
The Mehdi Army and Iraqi security forces started exchanging prisoners late Friday, according to an Iraqi police source.
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has reached an agreement with the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani that grants his freedom from murder charges and secures peace in war-torn Najaf, al-Sistani aides said Thursday.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most powerful Shiite Muslim cleric, called on Iraqis Wednesday to march to Najaf to help rescue the holy city, site of nearly three weeks of fighting between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi troops.
Shortly after Iraq's interim government threatened Muqtada al-Sadr's militiamen to leave a Najaf mosque, an al-Sadr aide said Tuesday that the cleric is ready to negotiate a cease-fire and end the standoff.
Intensified U.S. airstrikes hit targets around the Imam Ali Mosque late Monday and a huge fire lit the sky around the Shiite Islam shrine.
Fighting between U.S. forces and fighters loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr continued into the early morning hours Sunday, with explosions heard near the Imam Ali Mosque.
Militants loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr say they have handed over the keys of a revered Muslim shrine in Najaf to Shiite religious leaders, The Associated Press reports.
U.S. forces Friday resumed offensive operations outside the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf in an effort to pressure fighters loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who are holed up in the mosque complex.
Oil prices fell back below $48 a barrel Friday after earlier soaring above $49, but continuing violence in Iraq and solid worldwide demand kept investors talking about another possible rise next week.
Oil prices blazed to another record near $49 a barrel Thursday, spurred by violence in Iraq that sparked fresh worries about global supplies.
Radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced Wednesday his militia would leave the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, following a threat by the Iraqi government to "liberate" the holy site.
Radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr refused to meet Tuesday with Iraqi leaders sent to Najaf in hopes of ending nearly two weeks of fighting between al-Sadr's militia fighters and a U.S.-Iraqi force, the city's governor said.
Iraq's National Conference agreed on Monday to send a delegation to Najaf to meet with Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and encourage him and his Mehdi Army militia to withdraw from the Imam Ali Mosque.
Twenty-five heavily armed foreigners holed up inside the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf have rigged it with explosives and are threatening to blow up the building if attacked, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said Sunday in a written statement.
Efforts to broker a peace agreement with rebel forces loyal to Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the embattled south-central city of Najaf have failed, Iraqi government officials said Saturday.
How has Muqtada al-Sadr gained so much attention?
Shiite and interim Iraqi government leaders began cease-fire talks Friday with the forces of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf, Iraqi authorities said.
Oil prices ended at fresh record highs on Thursday as U.S.-led forces sought to crush a rebellion in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf, a move that Shi'ite Iraqi militia have warned could trigger fresh attacks on oil infrastructure.
U.S. Marines in Najaf raided the house of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, seized weapons and obliterated a nearby building with a 500-pound bomb to clear out pockets of resistance held by his militia.
With U.S. and Iraqi forces preparing for a major assault in Najaf, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr urged his armed followers to keep up their battle even if he is seized or killed.
Fresh fighting has been reported in the holy city of Najaf, where U.S. Marines and Iraqi security forces have been battling fighters loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for six days.
U.S. Marines have taken over as the lead multinational force in the holy city of Najaf, where radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr vowed Monday to fight American troops to the death.
Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi paid a surprise visit to the holy Muslim city of Najaf on Sunday, the scene of recent fierce fighting between U.S. forces and insurgents that has left an estimated 300 rebels dead.
About 300 militia fighters have been killed in the south-central Iraqi city of Najaf in fighting since Thursday, U.S. military officials said.
U.S. military forces on Thursday joined Iraqi security forces fighting the militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the holy city of Najaf, according to Iraqi and U.S. military officials.
Four Iraqi National Guardsman died and six were wounded Tuesday when a suicide car bomb rocked a checkpoint near the eastern city of Baquba, police said.
Insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi purportedly claims responsibility for last week's missile attack against Iraq's interim prime minister, according to a statement posted on several Islamic Web sites Wednesday.
Brawling and gunfire involving a militia loyal to a radical cleric flared Friday in the south-central Iraqi city of Najaf and a Baghdad neighborhood.
Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, Thursday said Iraq has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues, had significant disruption in electrical service and seen serious environmental damage because of insurgent attacks on the country's oil infrastructure.
American soldiers held back from helping Iraqi police in their battle against the Mehdi Army in Najaf on Thursday morning, but later U.S. commanders agreed to resupply the police with ammunition, according to a senior U.S. military officer.
A day after a truce deal went into effect, the pitched battles in Najaf and Kufa between U.S. forces and Muqtada al-Sadr's militia dramatically fizzled out, restoring security in the volatile southern Iraqi region, a coalition spokesman said Saturday.
Five U.S. soldiers were killed and four others wounded Friday afternoon when an explosion ripped through a Humvee in eastern Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman said.
U.S. troops on Thursday battled insurgents in Kufa suspected of firing dozens of mortars at a forward operating base outside of the city, U.S. military officials said.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry rushed police reinforcements from Baghdad to Najaf last week with inadequate preparations, leading the Baghdad officers to return to the capital because of conditions they found unacceptable, an Iraqi police official said Tuesday.
An American adviser said the U.S. Army "dropped the ball" by providing inadequate accommodations for Iraqi police officers who were to begin joint patrols with coalition troops in Najaf on Sunday.
A firefight erupted Sunday night in Kufa, Iraq, when U.S. troops clashed with insurgents loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the troops' commanding officer said.
Fighting between U.S. forces and the Mehdi Army militia continued Saturday, two days after radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr pledged to withdraw most of his militia from the Najaf region if U.S. forces did the same.
A convoy carrying a member of the Iraqi Governing Council was ambushed Thursday shortly after leaving Najaf to return to Baghdad.
A prominent aide to renegade Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was arrested early Wednesday in Najaf, according to U.S. military officials and a representative of al-Sadr's office.
U.S.-led coalition forces killed about 50 members of a radical cleric's militia in overnight battles in the south-central Iraqi city of Najaf, a senior coalition official said Wednesday.
An artillery shell used in a roadside bomb in Baghdad did contain the nerve agent sarin as originally thought, U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday.
"The second step in the plan for Iraqi democracy is to help establish the stability and security that democracy requires.
Insurgents and U.S. troops battled across Iraq as talk of Shiite peace moves competed with sounds of mortars and gunfire in Najaf, the stronghold of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia.
U.S. troops and Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army fought bitterly on the Muslim holy day, trading fire in the radical cleric's power centers of Najaf and Karbala, despite ongoing peace negotiations.
In an overnight battle, U.S. forces traded fire in Najaf with suspected members of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, killing three of them, military officials said Thursday.
Coalition forces said they had killed 20 to 25 Iraqi militia loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr in Karbala, as the radical Shiite cleric said his militia will continue to fight U.S. forces.
At least five people were killed Sunday in an explosion at a crowded Baghdad market, police said, while coalition forces in Najaf stepped up operations against radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his banned Mehdi Army militia.
At least five people died Sunday in an explosion at a crowded market in Baghdad.
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rallied his supporters with condemnation of the prisoner abuse crisis during his weekly sermon Friday at Kufa mosque, near the site of pitched battles between his Mehdi Army militia and U.S. troops.
As coalition forces rolled into Najaf on Thursday to take over the governor's office, CNN Bahgdad bureau chief Jane Arraf was there.
Coalition forces battled Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia on Thursday in the militant Shiite cleric's strongholds of Karbala, Najaf and Kufa.
Three U.S. soldiers were killed in fighting in the south-central Iraqi town of Diwaniyah, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
U.S. troop strength in Iraq will remain at about 138,000 until the end of 2005, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.
U.S. troops moved to occupy checkpoints Monday throughout the restive southern Iraqi city of Najaf following a barrage of insurgents' mortar and small-arms fire, an American commander there said.
U.S. Army tanks rolled out of their base in the middle of Najaf Monday afternoon to fight back against a barrage of insurgent mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire aimed at the base.
Two Marines were killed and six others were wounded Friday in a suicide bombing near Fallujah, where U.S. Marines are preparing to reposition so Iraqi forces can take on a bigger role in fighting insurgents.
Spanish troops have left Iraq's holy Shi'ite city of Najaf, where rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is holed up with his militia, for their main base at Diwaniya, officials said on Tuesday.
Intense fire from U.S. warplanes lit the sky Tuesday night in Fallujah, a hotbed of Sunni Muslim resistance where U.S. Marines have engaged in a two-week standoff with insurgents.
Top coalition officials Monday issued an ultimatum to Iraqi insurgents in Najaf, warning them to immediately remove stockpiles of weapons from holy sites or face military action.
Coalition officials said Sunday that they would give the "political track" longer to work in troubled Fallujah, saying the deadline for residents to hand over heavy weapons would be extended until Tuesday.
A Bulgarian soldier has been shot dead by suspected insurgents who ambushed his convoy in the Iraqi holy Shiite city of Karbala, coalition forces said.
Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr would disarm his militia and drop his conditions for negotiating with the U.S.-led coalition if Iraq's top Shiite spiritual body approves, his spokesman said Wednesday.
The unilateral U.S. cease-fire in Fallujah is holding -- barely.
U.S. officials are insisting the situation in Iraq is improving despite a surge in violence that has made April the deadliest month of combat for the U.S. military since last year's invasion.
Iraqi police will return to their posts in Najaf, a Shiite holy city that is among the latest hotspots in Iraq.
Police will return to their posts in the holy city of Najaf after reaching an agreement with the militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the city's police chief and an al-Sadr spokesman said Monday.
Shiites angry over the arrest of a top cleric's deputy stormed through a Baghdad neighborhood Sunday, killing seven U.S. troops, wounding dozens more and taking over buildings, coalition officials said.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday that part of his dramatic testimony to the U.N. Security Council before the Iraq war was based on intelligence that appears to have been unreliable.
In an effort to collect evidence to be used against Saddam Hussein at trial, a team of U.S. Justice Department officials is heading to Iraq this weekend, a Justice Department official told CNN.
Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, survived an assassination attempt Thursday when four gunmen opened fire on him and his entourage, a close associate said.
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It may be unseemly to mention it at a time when soldiers and civilians are dying in Iraq. But in the weeks and months that led up to the conflict, property prices soared in the historic Iraqi citie...
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