Ailing cleric's son taking up Shi'ite leadership in Iraq
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BAGHDAD -- After years of troubled or failed relations with Iraq's Shi'ite politicians, President Bush last December welcomed Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, resplendent in black turban and traditional robes, to the White House. The visit cemented Hakim and his party as America's latest, favorite Shi'ite ally in Iraq.
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Several major political parties are in talks to form a coalition to break the influence of the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, Iraqi officials say.
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MARK COLVIN: To Iraq where the Shi&#39;ite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani is on his way back to the holy city of Najaf, with around ten thousand followers joining his convoy from Basra in Iraq&#39;s south.
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Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his fighters Thursday to hand control of a revered Najaf shrine to top Shiite religious authorities, hours after U.S. forces bombed militant positions and Iraq's prime minister made a "final call" for the cleric's militia to surrender.
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26 August 2004 -- Iraq&#39;s top Shi&#39;ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, arrived in the city of Al-Najaf today in a bid to end a weeks-long conflict between US forces and militiamen loyal to Shi&#39;ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
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The detention of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim's eldest son agitated one of Iraqâs most formidable political movements.
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Muqtada al-Sadr's decision to withdraw from the Shiite bloc is the most dramatic sign of the transformation in Iraqi politics. Old alliances are fraying, new ones are forming.
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Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical cleric, surfaced in Iraq Friday -- four months after his last public appearance -- and blasted the United States, Britain and Israel as an "evil trio," Reuters and an Iraq TV station reported. The U.S. military has remained keenly interested in al-Sadr's movements because he controls the powerful Mehdi Army, which has thousands of loyal anti-American followers.
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Iraqis carry a portrait of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad&#39;s Shiite enclave of Sadr city Friday Dec. 10 2004 as they mark the anniversary of his father&#39;s death.
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The country&#39;s most revered Shiite cleric returned to Iraq today after surgery in Britain, raising hopes that the rebellion here against the American
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Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq&#39;s top Shiite Muslim cleric, rarely speaks in public but wields leverage in shaping the future of postwar Iraq.
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Iraqi Sunni leader Tariq al-Hashemi holds talks with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shia cleric.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric made a  sudden return to the country Wednesday and said he had a plan  to end an uprising in the "burning city" of Najaf, where  fighting is creeping ever closer to its holiest shrine.
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A radical cleric prepared to hand control of a shrine at the heart of a Shi'ite uprising in Iraq to religious authorities on Friday, but still rejected demands by the interim prime minister to disband his militia.
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Moktada al-Sadr has shown how a portly cleric with a dedicated militia and an artful grasp of Shiite street politics can confront American power.
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BAGHDAD, Oct. 7 -- The U.S. military released a senior aide to the rebellious Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr on Thursday, and Sadr aides said momentum was growing toward an agreement to disband the cleric's militia, which would halt a major element of the insurgency in Iraq.
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Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric headed for Najaf on Thursday to try to get rebels inside a holy shrine to leave and bring an end to three weeks of bloody fighting that has killed hundreds.