Gunmen seriously wounded a Shiite cleric and an outspoken critic of sectarian militias in an ambush Sunday
The Iraqi military's control of the Baghdad slum could well be the result of a voluntary cease-fire by Muqtada al-Sadr's militia. But some believe the cleric's forces are spent
The Prime Minister's police and military forces try to secure the oil-rich region as they push out the Sadrists -- with quiet help from the Americans
The radical cleric looks to recover from a recent military setback by winning provincial elections
"General Ali" has helped make the Lutufiyah area, once one of the most dangerous in the country, one of Iraq's safest. Can his model be replicated elsewhere?
Eclipsed by the rise of Muqtada al-Sadr, Ali al-Sistani, long an advocate of moderation, is re-emerging from his refuge in the holy city of Najaf
Under a truce agreement, Iraqi government troops can now patrol the Mahdi Army's stronghold. But Sadr's forces have retained much of their muscle
Representatives of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and lawmakers from Iraq's main Shiite political bloc signed a four-day cease-fire Monday
U.S. and Iraqi forces spent two months battling al-Sadr's Mahdi Army only to see the cleric standing strong after a hastily arranged cease-fire
The Iraqi Government signals plans for an offensive in eastern Baghdad that is likely to displace thousands of civilians
Gunmen seriously wounded a Shiite cleric and an outspoken critic of sectarian militias in an ambush Sunday
The Iraqi military's control of the Baghdad slum could well be the result of a voluntary cease-fire by Muqtada al-Sadr's militia. But some believe the cleric's forces are spent
The Prime Minister's police and military forces try to secure the oil-rich region as they push out the Sadrists -- with quiet help from the Americans
The radical cleric looks to recover from a recent military setback by winning provincial elections
"General Ali" has helped make the Lutufiyah area, once one of the most dangerous in the country, one of Iraq's safest. Can his model be replicated elsewhere?
Eclipsed by the rise of Muqtada al-Sadr, Ali al-Sistani, long an advocate of moderation, is re-emerging from his refuge in the holy city of Najaf
Under a truce agreement, Iraqi government troops can now patrol the Mahdi Army's stronghold. But Sadr's forces have retained much of their muscle
Representatives of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and lawmakers from Iraq's main Shiite political bloc signed a four-day cease-fire Monday
U.S. and Iraqi forces spent two months battling al-Sadr's Mahdi Army only to see the cleric standing strong after a hastily arranged cease-fire
The Iraqi Government signals plans for an offensive in eastern Baghdad that is likely to displace thousands of civilians
With U.S. and Iraqi forces focused on the Shi'ite Mahdi Army, the Sunni insurgents have begun hitting the enemies that kept them at bay in the capital
The Sunnis hated it when Maliki flirted with Sadr. Now they are flirting with Maliki, who is fighting Sadr. The Shi'ite cleric may still have the last laugh
The leader of the Mahdi Army warns of open war against the U.S.-backed government of Iraq, a U.S. Secretary of State Rice makes an announced visit to Iraq in support of al-Maliki
Shi'ite militia continue to put pressure on Iraqi forces and seek to expand desertions by government troops
The Shi'ite militia leader voices new demands and strengthens his hand, as insurgents send out car bombs north and west of Baghdad
As the curfew on Sadr City was set to be lifted, a Moqtada al-Sadr associate is killed, threatening Shi'ite violence
A senior aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was assassinated Friday in the holy city of Najaf. Authorities immediately announced a citywide curfew and security forces deployed on the streets
As Washington debates the future of its troop surge, the Shi'ite cleric who wants the U.S. out faces down the Iraqi government
The Iraqi Prime Minister calls off hostilities against Mahdi Army strongholds, but Moqtada al-Sadr is still planning a huge anti-U.S. rally next week
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered a nationwide freeze on raids against suspected Shi'ite militiamen, according to a statement issued by his office
The Iraqi official in charge of security improvements in Iraq talks to TIME following his abduction by the Mahdi Army
Analysis: The radical cleric manages to be both politician and warrior and, by standing up to the U.S. and Maliki, has won even more street cred as an Iraqi patriot
The militant leader calls for an end to the fighting. Though his followers listened, it's not yet clear what will happen next
The Iraqi government's offensive has turned into a full-fledged fight against the Mahdi Army -- whose ceasefire appears on the brink of collapse
The Iraqi Prime Minister grants Basra's fighters an extension to hand over weapons as Baghdad is placed under curfew
Iraq's Prime Minister launches a critical offensive against the biggest Shi'a militia -- with 72 hours for it to surrender
Iraqi militants interviewed by TIME describe being trained in Iran, lending support to U.S. charges that Tehran continues to undermine security in Iraq
The warlord is threatening to lift his cease-fire against American forces, Sunnis and his Shi'ite rivals. The U.S. says it's not worried, but perhaps it should be
A messianic Shiite cult's battles with police and attacks on religious holiday pilgrims have left 75 dead across Iraq in two days, officials say.
A suicide bomb detonated near a Shiite religious site in Peshawar in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least four people and wounding 22, police told CNN.
Moqtada al-Sadr's forces may have declared a cease-fire, but their presence in the Iraqi security forces remains a concern
An Iranian naval commander Monday said his forces are willing to carry out suicide missions when facing enemy forces in the Persian Gulf, according to Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency.
Two rival Shiite leaders signed an agreement Saturday to end months of rancor and fighting between the two powerful movements they command, a representative of one of the men said.
The volatile cleric was praised when he said he was freezing his militia. But U.S. officers on the ground are doubtful it will make much difference on the streets
As US and British influence in Southern Iraq wanes, rival Shi'ite militias are vying to assert their supremacy
Police told more than 1 million pilgrims to leave the Shiite holy city of Karbala Tuesday after two days of violence claimed at least 27 lives during a religious festival
British troops are preparing to depart Iraq's second city in the coming months, leaving behind an intra-Shi'ite power struggle
A roadside bomb Monday killed the governor of the predominantly Shiite Muthanna province, police said, the second assassination of a top provincial official in just over a week
Wednesday's raid on a Mahdi Army cell in Sadr City signals a new intention to get tough on militias with ties to Iran
A truck bomb struck a Shi'ite mosque Tuesday in central Baghdad, killing 78 people and wounding more than 200
U.S. and Iraqi forces began major military operations Monday to the north and south of Baghdad, while Iraqi officials said 36 people were killed in clashes in southern Iraq
The presence of a massive American force in the streets of Baghdad has restrained the Mahdi Army
Attackers struck nine Sunni mosques in Baghdad and south of the Iraqi capital in the aftermath of Wednesday's bombing of Al-Askariya Mosque -- a major Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra, police said Thursday.
Evidence of ties to the JFK terror plot is thin. But it's not hard to believe, says Robert Baer, that Iran is eyeing American targets
A pair of car bombs exploded in northern Baghdad's Kadhimiya neighborhood Wednesday, killing at least seven people and wounding 27 others, an Interior Ministry official said. A third car bomb found in the area is being dismantled.
With the radical Shi'ite cleric back on the scene, pressure on Maliki will mount, and so may calls for a withdrawal timetable
A suicide car bomber attacked between two Shiite shrines in the Iraqi city of Karbala Saturday, killing at least 58 people and wounding 170, a police spokesman said.
Black smoke filled the skies over central Baghdad just before midday Monday as a suicide car bomber detonated explosives in a busy commercial district, killing 28 people and wounding 56 others, Baghdad police said.
Five explosions ripped through central Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 90 people, amid memorials marking last year's attack on a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra, police said.
The Pentagon is investigating whether a recent attack on a military compound in Karbala was carried out by Iranians or Iranian-trained operatives, two officials from separate U.S. government agencies said.
A suicide bomber detonated Monday as he tried to enter a Shia religious procession in northwestern Pakistan, killing himself and a police officer, police sources 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.
At least 13 people, including a senior police official, were killed Saturday evening in a suicide bombing near a crowded Shiite mosque in Peshawar, police sources told CNN.
Anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's bloc is threatening to withdraw support from Iraq's government if next week's planned meeting in Jordan between President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki takes place.
Security was tight in Baghdad on Saturday as thousands of Shiite Muslim pilgrims walked through the capital to commemorate the death of a revered 8th century imam -- Musa al-Kadhim.
A prominent Shiite leader has been killed in a suicide bombing near his home, police said.
A spate of weekend violence, concentrated near the Iraqi capital, has claimed 34 lives -- most of them civilians -- and leveled six Shiite shrines, evidence that sectarian tensions are still strong.
Shiite mourners carrying dozens of coffins filled Baghdad's streets Saturday, as families buried victims of the massive suicide bomb attack at a Shiite mosque a day earlier.
A car bomb detonated Thursday near the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, killing 10 people and wounding 39 others, police said.
The death toll following Thursday's suicide attack in the city of Hangu in northwest Pakistan has reached 30, police sources have told CNN.
Twenty-two people have been killed and dozens more were wounded in a suicide attack during a Shiite Muslim holiday procession in the city of Hangu in northwest Pakistan, officials said.
Two bombs exploded only minutes apart Tuesday in a central Baghdad market, killing at least three people and wounding 20 others, Iraqi emergency police said.
Iraqis started the year with a historic transitional assembly election. They voted for a constitution in October. And on Thursday they will cap their tumultuous year when many are expected vote for a full four-year parliament.
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 suicide bomb blast Wednesday inside a Shiite Muslim mosque in Hilla, south of the capital, killed at least 25 people and wounded 87 others, Iraqi police officials said.
Iraq's three major groups -- Kurds, Shiite Arabs and Sunni Arabs -- continue to debate the proposed constitution, striving to win over critics by Sunday.
Following bloody battles in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Thursday called for an end to violence between his supporters and those loyal to a rival Shiite leader.
A third midnight deadline for Iraq's proposed constitution passed without agreement Thursday, with negotiators taking another day to resolve their differences before sending the charter to voters, the country's parliament speaker said.
Iraqi leaders tried to overcome a roadblock -- the issue of Shiite autonomy -- on Thursday as they worked to meet Monday's deadline to draft a new constitution.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a surprise visit to Iraq Sunday, praising Iraqi authorities and U.S. troops amid an insurgency that is taking dozens of lives each week.
Explosions ripped through Iraq on Friday, leaving at least 27 people dead and five dozen wounded as Shiite Muslims observed Ashura, authorities said.
Deadly car bombings on Sunday hit the Iraqi Shiite Muslim holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, killing 67 people, officials said.
A coalition fielding 228 candidates and supported by Iraq's top Shiite cleric has been formed to compete in the January 30 national elections.
Insurgent attacks on pipelines have brought oil exports from southern Iraq to a complete halt, a senior oil official said Monday, part of a rebel campaign to undermine the nation's post-war reconstruction efforts.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
An artillery shell used in a roadside bomb in Baghdad did contain the nerve agent sarin as originally thought, U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday.
At least 14 people have been killed and 200 injured by a suicide bomber at a Shiite mosque in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, police said.
How has Muqtada al-Sadr gotten so much attention? Believed to be about 30 years old, al-Sadr is the son of a grand ayatollah but U.S. officials think his support is relatively small, and concentrated among the young and poor.
Government officials have raised the toll from an attack by gunmen on Shiite Muslim worshippers in southwest Pakistan, saying at least 50 people were killed and 140 wounded.
Three gunmen opened fire and hurled grenades on a procession of Shiite Muslim worshippers in the southwest Pakistani city of Quetta Tuesday, killing more than 40 people and wounding scores more.
It is the holiest day for Iraq's Shiite Muslims.
Explosions in two Iraqi cities, which killed or injured dozens of people during the Muslim holiday of Ashura, sent crowds of pilgrims fleeing in panic.
Suspected insurgents killed scores of people Tuesday in well-organized, simultaneous attacks in Baghdad and the holy city of Karbala on the holiest Shiite Muslim day of the year, U.S.-led coalition officials said.
The Iraqi Governing Council says it has asked authorities to investigate allegations an illegal prison is being run by a top Shiite cleric.
An Iraqi Governing Council member said on Thursday that a top Shiite cleric and coalition officials are crafting a solution for selecting an Iraqi transitional legislature and developing a compromise on elections.
A man on a bicycle packed with explosives blew himself up in front of a mosque during Friday prayers in the eastern Iraqi town of Ba'qubah, killing four people and wounding dozens, U.S.-led coalition officials said.
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