sadr

I don't know how much power al-Sadr has.

Sadr had good reason to be happy: He now holds the fate of his one-time enemy in his hands.

He said the government will control checkpoints around Sadr City, but the area will not be cordoned off entirely.

On Saturday an estimated 50, 000 supporters of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr marched in Baghdad to call for US troops to leave Iraq.

In a statement issued by his office, al-Sadr called for peaceful celebrations and urged people not to attack Sunnis.

Al - Sadr supporters were quick to respond that the prime minister has no constitutional power to interfere with elections .

Last month a former colonel in Gaddafi's army said Libyan agents had assassinated Sadr and buried him in the southern city of Sabha.

For now, Sadr is undoubtedly pleased by his opportunity to have a key vote in who becomes the next prime minister.

CNN Anchor: Well after nearly a week of vicious fighting between Iraqi forces and Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army, a welcome cease-fire.

For the canny Mr Sadr has long played the anti-American card, always calling for the Americans to leave forthwith.

It was launched by a Shiite-dominated government out to break the local control of militias led by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

And that's exactly why Allawi shuttled to Damascus for the meeting: He needs Sadr if he hopes to become prime minister.

Mr Sadr has told all his politicians to spend a day sweeping the streets to stay in touch with the poor.

More than a year before the elections in March, Sadr and his top aides set up an election strategy committee they dubbed the "machine. "

A party loyal to a Shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, said it would support the incumbent prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, in his bid to stay on.

Meanwhile, there was a bombing in a vegetable market in Baghdad's mainly Shi'ite district of Sadr City, with dozens of casualties.

Sadr's political comeback was the result of careful and deliberate planning.

With his Persian-accented Arabic, striking physical appearance and unflagging energy, Sadr earned respect across the sectarian divide.

Mr Sadr has spoken by telephone to Mr Allawi to try to persuade him to endorse and join a Maliki-led block.

Bullet holes mark a door of a small shop in Sadr City, the fiefdom of the Madhi Army militia, loyal to Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

For that to happen, however, he stresses, Sadr must become a "marjah" or religious authority first.

The downtrodden Shias, including followers of Mr Sadr, now so dominate the government that it is no longer seen as a neutral arbiter.

All this has discouraged U. S. officials from holding talks with Sadr -- something they've never done since 2003.

A young boy looks through a bullet hole in the window of a school in the Shia area of Sadr city in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Iraqi Army vehicles cross the concrete barrier dividing Sadr City, en route to the portion of the city controlled by the Mahdi Army.

The Rashad psychiatric hospital lies at the very end of the sprawling Shiite slum of Sadr City.

Sadr can, rightfully, claim that his movement is one of the few on the Iraqi political scene that's homegrown.

Both parties are determined to keep from power the populists loyal to a fiery nationalist cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr.

After two years in exile, Mr Sadr has made only two high-profile appearances in Iraq to address his followers.

Now, as U. S. troops withdraw and negotiations are underway in Baghdad to form a new government, Sadr may be planning his return.

This was the first time the prime minister singled out al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

Sadr's message came as his allies in Shiite Iran began talks with the United States to seek a solution for Iraq's war.

The attack targeted Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr and occurred as the faithful were leaving after Friday prayers.

So at the end of the day, Sadr is a minority within the parliament.

In Shiite areas, including Sadr City in northeastern Baghdad, residents flooded the streets, whooping and dancing and honking car horns.

"The response to the HIV epidemic is at a crossroads" , say Justman and El-Sadr.

In the south new extremist groups are springing up and old ones like Mr Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army, are reforming.

He added that militants loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr now acknowledge that they cannot be permitted to act outside of the government.

Hassanyari notes that there has been talk of Sadr eventually taking the place of Iraq's venerable Shi'ite cleric Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

Iraq's unrelenting violence included two particularly vicious bomb explosions in Sadr City, a Shia district of Baghdad.

That is, until Sadr met with Ayad Allawi, a top contender for the prime minister post in Iraq and one of the cleric's sworn enemies.

A- Sadr Spokesman in Najaf quote Sadr as saying that quoting now occupy forces and others working with them are responsible for the killing.

Sadr is the Columbia University International AIDS care and treatment programs (ICAP), director.

The memo emphasised Mr Maliki's need to put some distance between himself and Mr Sadr.

Sadr's movement had called on the government to stop random raids against al-Sadr's followers and to open roads that lead to the city.

IOM says most health facilities and schools, as well as some shops, have reopened in Sadr city.

Sadr who is believed to be in Iran called on his supporters to wear black to mourn the passage of what he terms " humiliating accord. "

However, in the cabinet crisis in Iraq, al-Sadr in Iran to support Maliki eventually persuaded to continue as prime minister.

This blood-red lake outside of Iraq's Sadr City garnered a fair share of macabre speculation when it was discovered in 2007.

The fighting in Basra has shaken up Iraqi politics, he claimed, boosting Mr Maliki and putting Mr Sadr on the defensive.

If indeed Iran and Sadr now truly want mutual respect with Sunnis, then the path toward peace in Iraq may become easier.

In an interview on Iraqi news, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said this cease-fire applies only to Sadr City.

A six-month ceasefire declared by Muqtada al-Sadr, the powerful radical cleric, has helped to reduce violence.

Then on Tuesday, the fiery young Mr. Sadr demonstrated his heavy political influence in Iraq's parliament.

A shoe is raised during a protest against President Bush's visit to Iraq in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad.

Dabbagh said that private courts operating in Sadr City outside of the Ministry of Justice must immediately stop their operations.

The trip looked at first to be a routine photo-op for Sadr and Syrian President Bashar Assad.

It's a role that Sadr, the scion of a prominent clerical family, has been building toward since 2003.

Iraqi anti-US Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr threatened that if the continued presence of U. S. troops, he will return to armed resistance.

Mr Sadr was once derided as "Ayatollah Atari" , a nickname denoting his love of computer games.

What Sadr is after is power itself -- and if his past record is any indication, he won't be shy about using it.

Once again Shia slum-dwellers in Baghdad and the south voted in numbers for Muqtada al-Sadr, a populist cleric.

The prime minister and Iraqi Army failed in their goal to force Sadr's militias to surrender.

Men kneel outside a mosque during Friday prayers in Sadr City, a mostly Shi'ite enclave in Baghdad.

According to reports, this is the end of exile, al-Sadr returned to Iraq the first time since the publication of the speech.

Mr Sadr is meanwhile putting pressure on Mr Maliki to distance himself from the Americans.

This is not the first time al-Sadr to issue such a voice.

The demonstrator responds the Shiah political figure Sadeer summons, very early east Baghdad Sadr City solemn Zhafaer square accumulation.

This Iraqi Army security tower surveys the destroyed Jamila Market in Sadr City.

The attack in Sadr City Friday comes as Shi'ite Muslims observe the solemn Ashura holiday.

Lawmakers loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have announced that they are withdrawing from the Shiite bloc in parliament.

Now there are few parts of Sadr City where American vehicles can safely go.

Iraqi forces raided the cleric's stronghold Sunday in the Baghdad area of Sadr City.

But the friendship didn't last: Sadr bitterly split from Maliki when the latter allowed American troops to attack his militia members.

On the Shia side, it is not clear whether Mr Sadr has given up violence for good.

The President spoke to representatives from PRTs and BCTs in Ninewa, Maysan, and Sadr City.

Once fierce rivals Allawi and Moqtada al-Sadr met in Damascus in mid-August 2010 for negotiations on resolving the election dispute.

For their part, the Americans are still nervous about Mr Sadr's increasing cosiness with Iran.

An aide to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi, says the cease-fire in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City will go into effect on Sunday.

"Mahdi Army" militia of Sadr's organization, from 2004 to 2007 of the US-led multinational force launched a series of attacks.

Sadr's ambitions don't cover Iraq's domestic agenda alone.

But radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, is threatening to torpedo the vote.

In any case, it is social and religious issues that most preoccupy Mr Sadr.

The cleric's aide Hazem Al-Aaraji read a statement on behalf of Sadr, demanding and end to the operation.

But Mr Sadr has recently spent more time in Iraq, mainly in the Shia's holy city of Najaf.

Sadr said in a statement, to allow Iraq to regain independence, he can not let the U. S. military left behind an excuse.

But under the new cease-fire, Sadr told his forces "to cooperate with the government to achieve security. "

Within that alliance, Mr Sadr has a role.

Reed says he also doubts whether al-Sadr's order will have a lasting impact.

But during Mr Sadr's time in Iran, where he has been studying in the holy city of Qom, he renewed his friendship with the mullahs.

Mr. Maliki, a Shia, took office in 2006 with al-Sadr's support.

Al-Sadr has great sway there, and it's thought that weapon smugglers from Iran do too.

Bani Sadr says the strike is continuing because the country's economic crisis has been exacerbated by the government's bad policies.

And many think that Iranian influence is behind Mr Sadr's decision to bolster Mr Maliki.

Indeed, Mr Maliki would not have kept his post as prime minister after last year's inconclusive election without Mr Sadr's endorsement.

Mr. Bani Sadr argues the Iranian people have good reason to be upset with the results of the election:

But half the militiamen loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, Iraq's fiercest Shia cleric, are thought to have quietly returned. They lie in wait

Al-Sadr to Let Supporters Rejoin Iraq's Government