Anti-American cleric flees Iraq for Iran
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Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr fled Iraq for Iran ahead of a security crackdown in Baghdad and the arrival of 21,500 U.S. troops sent by President Bush to quell sectarian violence, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on  Tuesday refused to meet an Iraqi peace delegation because of  "American aggression" as U.S. troops pounded militia positions  in Najaf near the country's holiest Islamic sites.
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Iran's Foreign Ministry denied Sunday that radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was in Iran, calling statements by U.S. and Iraqi officials saying he had traveled to Iran "psychological warfare."
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Iraq's most influential Shi'ite  cleric headed for the battered city of Najaf on Thursday to try  to persuade rebels holed up inside a sacred shrine to leave and  end a three-week uprising that has killed hundreds.
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BAGHDAD, May 24 -- Moqtada al-Sadr, the influential Shiite cleric and militia leader who went into hiding before the launch of a U.S.-Iraqi security offensive in February, is in the southern city of Kufa, senior U.S. military commanders said Thursday.
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Militia fighters began to leave the Shrine of Imam Ali on Friday, taking up positions outside the sacred site or fleeing the city, after rebellious Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr offered to return custody of the complex to moderate clerics.
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An influential Iranian cleric, in a new  blast against Tehran's arch-enemy, told Washington on Friday it  cannot stop Iran pursuing nuclear technology and should not  attempt a military "adventure" in the country.
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Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered a suspension of his Mehdi Army militia for up to six months for restructuring, a senior aide said Wednesday.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric was due  to travel to Najaf on Thursday after making a surprise return  to the country to try to end bitter fighting creeping ever  closer to the city's holiest shrine.
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A radical Iraqi cleric leading a Shi'ite uprising agreed on Wednesday to disarm his militia and leave one of the country's holiest Islamic shrines after warnings of an onslaught by government forces.
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FALLUJA, Iraq  - U.S. forces Tuesday arrested the  top cleric in Iraq's volatile western Anbar province after  fighting in the regional capital of Ramadi, witnesses said.
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Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose supporters had allegedly made Fallujah their base, and a militant cleric who was one of his top aides have escaped the US-led offensive on the city, Iraq&#39;s secretary of state for national security, Qassem Daoud, has said.
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Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite Muslim cleric leading an insurgency in Iraq, ordered his militiamen to leave holy shrines in Najaf, as fighting in the city continued, the Qatar-based al-Jazeera television network said.
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A leading Shiite Muslim cleric Friday criticized the heavy use of force by the US military against insurgents in a northern Iraqi city, saying
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NAJAF, Iraq  - A radical Iraqi cleric leading a  Shi'ite uprising agreed on Wednesday to disarm his militia and  leave one of the country's holiest Islamic shrines after  warnings of an onslaught by government forces.
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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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The Shiite cleric seeks an Islam-friendly Iraq, but not a theocracy.