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Al-Sadr's rebellion nears collapse but his influence is assured.
Byline: Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
NAJAF, Iraq _ Muqtada al-Sadr's days of running this holiest of cities in the Shiite branch of Islam appear numbered. U.S. troops are closing in and residents are stepping up pressure on the radical Shiite cleric's gunmen to leave. They're still hanging on, though less visibly so and in reduced numbers.
But even with al Sadr's Mahdi Army militia likely to retreat, al-Sadr's influence on Shiite affairs in this epicenter of the faith can't easily be erased, clerics and experts in Najaf say.
Bolstered by his pedigree and mounting Iraqi anger toward American occupation, al-Sadr has successfully bucked a 1,300-year-old system in which religious authority over Iraq's majority Shiite population is wielded by elderly ayatollahs seasoned by decades of scholarly pursuit. Al-Sadr has fast-tracked his ascent by playing politics, using violence to subdue opponents and invoking the names of his father and uncle, famous ayatollahs who were killed by Saddam Hussein's agents.
"Even if he compromises and ends this peacefully, he will ...
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...END VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIPS: Sadr's spokesperson says the wanted...religious leaders including GRAND AYATOLLAH ALI SISTANI. He's a Shia...odds with the more radical Sadr. "Washington Post" reporter...s influence far overshadows Sadr's. Sistani is an extremely...
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...murdered Madaen because he was the local representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani (the most respected Shia leader in Iraq). Now...has carried out with the United States, with Moqtada al-Sadr, with the various Shia religious parties, his desires have...
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Source: HighBeam Research, Al-Sadr's rebellion nears collapse but his influence is assured.