It Takes a Following to Make an Ayatollah
By Juan Cole
Sunday, August 15, 2004; Page B04

The battle for Najaf has catapulted the names of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and lower-ranking cleric Moqtada Sadr onto the front pages of American newspapers once again.

This story from the Observer reports the events in Najaf over the last few days and mentions Sunni - Shia cooperation in the struggle.

'After three wars we have all had enough'

The uprising against US troops in Najaf is causing further divisions among many Iraqis, who are fed up with fighting, reports Rory McCarthy, who has been in the holy Shia city for the past week

August 10, 2004 statement from www.idao.org, the Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation, followed by an August 10 report on the widespread uprising occurring in response to the US aggression in Najaf.

from juancole.com, august 11th, 2004.

The US military pounded Mahdi Army positions in the vast cemetery of Najaf again on Tuesday, with artillery and aerial bombardment. The Americans also began asking the civilian population (ordinarily nearly half a million strong) to leave the city, spurring fears that the US planned another massive assault. The suqs or traditional markests of downtown Najaf have already been reduced to rubble by US bombings.

Shiite Struggle: City suffers as sect
fights for freedom. By ALISSA J. RUBIN
Los Angeles Times

NAJAF, Iraq - Since the fall of Saddam Hussein last year, worshipers from across the Muslim world have thronged to the Imam Ali shrine on Fridays to hear the sermon and celebrate the Shiite sect's newfound freedom.

'This is the only fun the kids get - shooting at the US sitting ducks'

Who exactly are the Iraqi resistance?

In a remarkable essay, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad joins the front-line anti-American fighters in Kerbala, Falluja and Sadr City...

Shiite Gunmen Seize Najaf Police Station
By DANICA KIRKA

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Shiite gunmen seized a police station Thursday in Najaf in the first outbreak of fighting since an agreement to end weeks of bloody clashes between U.S. troops and militia forces. Four Iraqis were killed and 13 were injured, hospital and militia officials said.

A critical perspective on Muqtada al-Sadr.
***

Moqtada al-Sadr’s group, Iran’s betting hoarse

from wpiraq.org

By Fahad Nasir

The bloody developments and continuous war in Iraq between the occupation forces and gangs of al-Sadr have clarified among other facts, the role the Islamic regime in Iran and how it stands behind many horrifying crimes and events whether through the Iranian intelligence (Itlaat) or through various political Islamic movements. This reactionary and terrorist regime, its intelligence agency and bloody “revolutionary guards” stand behind many explosions, armed operations and increasing confrontation with the occupation forces, including current street to street fighting and killing innocent civilians and destroying their houses by haphazard shooting and bombardment by both parties of this war. It also stands behind all manifestations of reaction and brutality which prevail in the south of Iraq. These parts of Iraq are now, in a way, under the rule of the Islamic Republic regime through the Shiite Islamic movements. These reactionary movements impose on people all manifestation of reaction, backwardness, climate of terrorism, killings, sectarian frictions, oppression against women, and rightlessness.

THE STRATFOR WEEKLY

03 June 2004

Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia

By George Friedman

Summary

The United States has clearly entered a new phase of the Iraq campaign in

Two Killed in Attack on Convoy in Baghdad
Sunday May 30, 2004 7:01 PM
By MARIAM FAM
Associated Press Writer

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - U.S. soldiers clashed with Shiite gunmen in this holy city on Sunday, further eroding an agreement to end the bloody standoff with followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Gunmen, meanwhile, attacked a convoy of sport utility vehicles in Baghdad, killing at least two people, witnesses said.