Al-Sadr Extends Ceasefire

Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced Friday that he has extended a cease-fire order to his Shiite Mahdi Army by another six months, giving Iraq a chance to continue its fragile recovery from brutal sectarian violence. That is the good news, the bad news is that he is still a powerful force in Iraq.

This story takes a look at Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia:
MUQTADA AL-SADR: The radical Shiite cleric commands influence as both a political force and leader of the Mahdi Army, a network of militiamen and other factions involved in community services. Based in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, al-Sadr is the son of the late Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, one of the most powerful Shiite clerics in Iraq in the late 1990s. He was killed in a 1999 ambush that his followers blame on the regime of Saddam Hussein.

We shall keep updating this story as more information becomes available, but as least for today our troops can breath a little easier, knowing that they will not be fighting the Mahdi Army for awhile!


6 months