updated Mon. November 13, 2023
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WDIY
April 16, 2018
He's a very influential Shiite cleric best known in the U.S. as leading the Mahdi Army, which fought U.S. forces after Saddam was toppled. So he's now emerged as an Iraqi nationalist, and he called for these demonstrations yesterday in several cities. The biggest demonstration was in Najaf. (SOUNDBITEÃâà...
The Intercept
April 15, 2018
Strongmen from the Jaysh al-Mahdi militia (or “Mahdi Army”) came to Ali's family home in Basra, asking for him. They made clear that the “infidel mercenary” would pay for his sin — and so would his family, if they failed to produce him. They returned several more times to repeat the threats, underscoringÃâà...
Xinhua
April 10, 2018
Sadr has a large number of followers in poor urban communities in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, and in some of the country's southern provinces. He commands the Shiite Saraya al-Salam militia which is the revival of the previously known as "Mahdi Army" militia after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The National
April 8, 2018
I am from the Mahdi army and I will get you," the student told him, referring to the militia of Moqtada Al Sadr, a hardline Shiite cleric. In another incident in August 2010, he found a letter with a bullet on his doorstep. An attached note said: "You Baathist, you scum, we will kill you." Enough was enough.
Kurdistan24
April 1, 2018
Saraya al-Salam, previously known as the al-Mahdi Army, is a Shia faction under the umbrella of the Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi founded by Sadr. “The recent incidents on the Kirkuk-Baghdad road claimed the lives of dozens of people by criminal gangs who do not differentiate between fighters and civilians,” HakimÃâà...
Truthdig
March 22, 2018
The Shia militiamen, JAM (Jaysh al Mahdi—The Mahdi Army), were backed by another regional player: Iran. They utilized their demographic plurality and fought the Sunnis for power in the new, US-imposed Iraqi “democracy;” occasionally, they found time to shatter our HMMWVs (and our bodies) withÃâà...
Socialist Worker Online
March 20, 2018
In the following days, Shia militias, especially Sadr's Mahdi Army, exacted their revenge, killing 1,300 Sunni civilians and destroying 50 Sunni mosques. The outgunned Sunni guerillas counter-attacked. At the height of the civil war, Patrick Cockburn estimates, "[M]ore than 3,700 Iraqis died in a single monthÃâà...
AllAfrica.com
March 20, 2018
She found herself in the face of a different sort of struggle for identity, where that Iraqi fought her rida'a brother (one who was breastfed by one's mother) who was active in the ranks of the rebel Mahdi Army. That was a tragic representation of what was actually taking place on the ground, in which theÃâà...
Common Dreams
March 20, 2018
The Shia militiamen, JAM (Jaysh al Mahdi – The Mahdi Army), were backed by another regional player: Iran. They utilized their demographic plurality and fought the Sunnis for power in the new, US-imposed Iraqi "democracy;" occasionally, they found time to shatter our HMMWVs (and our bodies) withÃâà...
Xinhua
March 13, 2018
Sadr's militia is a reformation of the previous militia Mahdi Army, which he led during the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the subsequent sectarian strife after 2003. On June 10, 2014, the group launched a blitzkrieg and seized large swathes of territories in predominantly Sunni provinces in northern and westernÃâà...
Kurdistan24
March 13, 2018
Al-Ghadeer website, meanwhile, reported that Abadi had called for the launch of an immediate investigation into the incident. Saraya al-Salam, previously known as the al-Mahdi Army, is a Shia faction under the umbrella of the Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi founded by the influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Arab News
March 10, 2018
His militia, the Mahdi Army, was accused of setting up death squads targeting Sunni Muslims. Sadr himself was accused of ordering the 2003 murder of rival Abdelmajid Al-Khoei. Sadrist militiamen also attacked bars and beat homosexuals until he ordered them to stop in 2016. Jassem Al-Hilfi, a smiling,Ãâà...
We Are The Mighty (blog)
December 13, 2017
Prior to the rise of ISIS in Iraq, Mr. Sadr's Mahdi Army and other Sadrists battled U.S. and coalition forces in Najaf and Sadr City during some of the worst fighting of the American occupation of the country in mid-2000. A known Shia hardliner, Mr. Sadr's position had begun to soften as other Iranian-backedÃâà...
We Are The Mighty (blog)
December 13, 2017
The paramilitary wing of influential Iraqi cleric Muqtada al Sadr on Dec. 11 agreed to disband its forces and hand over its cache of weapons to the Iraqi government, making it the first Shia militia to lay down its arms in the aftermath of Islamic State's defeat in the country. During a televised speech Dec.
Rudaw
December 11, 2017
Saraya al-Salam, like dozens of other paramilitias, operates under the umbrella of the Hashd al-Shaabi in Iraq. Sadr revitalized his Mahdi Army to form Saraya al-Salam during the rise of ISIS. In early November, Sadr had also called upon Saraya al-Salam to pull out from Kirkuk after it fell to the Iraqi armyÃâà...
New York Times
October 17, 2017
At the time, the health ministry was controlled by followers of Moktada al-Sadr, a firebrand cleric and the leader of the Mahdi Army, whose death squads against Iraqi Sunnis also brought the country to the brink of civil war. The lawsuit claims Mr. Sadr's lieutenants sold the samples on Iraq's black market toÃâà...
Telegraph.co.uk
June 21, 2014
The vast turnout for Saturday's Mahdi Army parade, held in the Shia slum neighbourhood of Sadr City, provided a chilling hint of the scale of violence that may break out in Iraq if government forces are unable to prevail. Mehdi Army fighters march during a parade in Kerbala, southwest of Baghdad (Reuters).
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