Mahdi

PHILADELPHIA -- In a week when Iraqi terrorists blew up hotels in Amman, Jordan, and President Bush denounced his Iraq critics, the real Iraq news was elsewhere. The man who might prove crucial to facilitating an eventual U.S. exit from Iraq moved around Washington with minimal media notice. He is Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite politician and the leading candidate to become Iraq's prime minister after the Dec. 15 elections. Mr. Mahdi's ability to forge an Iraqi political consensus that could undercut the insurgency might be the key to calming his country.

BAGHDAD -- Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army militia yesterday to extend its cease-fire for six months, boosting hopes that a recent trend toward sharply lower Iraqi civilian and American military deaths in Baghdad would continue. His announcement, read by Sadrist clerics at mosques throughout southern and central Iraq, came precisely two years after the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra that unleashed a wave of sectarian violence across Iraq. After the bombing, al-Sadr's huge militia rampaged through Sunni neighborhoods of Baghdad, killing hundreds of Sunnis every week and seizing control of three-quarters of the city.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Thirteen days ago, Aladdin Mahdi painted a piece of wood black, carefully wrote his name on it in white and nailed it above the door to his new home. With four rooms, and an outside balcony for hanging laundry, the apartment became his second-best new possession of the day, and he wears a persistent grin as wide as his doorway. Down the hall, Mahdi Falih was not halfway through moving in. But downstairs, Majeed Hameed was well settled into his new digs with his wife, Suad Mureef, and their six children, daughter-in-law and grandchild.

BAGHDAD -- A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol yesterday, killing at least seven officers in a Shiite area south of Baghdad that has seen fierce clashes between rival militia factions. Maj. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said the attackers were members of a criminal gang and suggested that they formerly had claimed ties to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. Al-Sadr's militia declared a freeze on operations in August after a clash in Karbala with a rival Shiite faction left at least 50 people dead.

BAGHDAD -- A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol yesterday, killing at least seven officers in a Shiite area south of Baghdad that has seen fierce clashes between rival militia factions. Maj. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said the attackers were members of a criminal gang and suggested that they formerly had claimed ties to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. Al-Sadr's militia declared a freeze on operations in August after a clash in Karbala with a rival Shiite faction left at least 50 people dead.

NAJAF, Iraq -- Shiite militias attacked each other in Karbala yesterday, killing more than 50 people in gunfights, setting fire to three hotels and forcing authorities to scuttle a religious festival by ordering a million celebrants to leave the holy city where they had gathered. More than 200 others were injured in the panic that ensued when Mahdi Army militia members loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr battled the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the rival Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's ruling Shiite coalition chose interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari yesterday as its candidate to head Iraq's new government, ending a bitter power struggle that threatened to split the United Iraqi Alliance. The nomination means that al-Jaafari is set to head the first permanent government since the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 -- continuing in the position he has held on a transitional basis since April -- thanks largely to the support of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

DAVOS, Switzerland -- The pristine, snowy mountains of this ski town present a picture totally different from scenes of bloody Baghdad. But Iraq is far from absent at the Davos World Economic Forum, where it is the subject of several high-level panels. I had the chance to talk at length with two of Iraq's smartest and most competent political leaders, Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi (a Shiite) and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari (a Kurd). What they said - about the U.S. troop "surge," the prospects for Iraq's government, and the need for intense Mideast diplomacy to keep the war from spreading - should be factored into America's Iraq debate.

Baghdad, Iraq -- The U.S. military released a senior member of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's movement yesterday at the request of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The decision, officials said, was made with the hope of easing tensions between al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Sheik Ahmed Shibani, who had been in prison for 2 1/2 years, was handed over to the office of the Shiite prime minister. "In consultation with the prime minister and following his request, coalition leaders determined that Sheik Shibani, who was detained since 2004, could play a potentially important role in helping to moderate extremism and foster reconciliation in Iraq," Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman, said in a statement.

Some critics scoff at moviemakers who aim to be "timeless" and take refuge from contemporary chaos in fantasy and history. But writers and directors who train a piercing eye on the past often shed more light on today's news than filmmakers who tear their stories from the headlines. Take this scenario for a foreign misadventure movie: Once hailed for liberating an Islamic country from tyranny, a Western commander learns that a messianic extremist and his army have massacred thousands of troops and laid waste to native towns.

The invitation for dinner with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came from the Iranian Mission to the United Nations. The scene was the darkly brocaded Barclay Room of New York's Intercontinental Hotel. A small group of journalists, along with Iran experts from academia and think tanks, sat around a square table lit by chandeliers, and set with plates of oriental salads and vases of roses. No alcohol was served. Mr. Ahmadinejad swept in after giving a defiant speech last week on Iran's nuclear program at the United Nations.

NAJAF, Iraq -- Shiite militias attacked each other in Karbala yesterday, killing more than 50 people in gunfights, setting fire to three hotels and forcing authorities to scuttle a religious festival by ordering a million celebrants to leave the holy city where they had gathered. More than 200 others were injured in the panic that ensued when Mahdi Army militia members loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr battled the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the rival Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.

BAGHDAD -- U.S. and Iraqi forces clashed with Shiite militants during a raid in the southern holy city of Karbala yesterday in which they captured a militia commander accused of orchestrating attacks on Iraqi officials and American soldiers. In political developments, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, chastised Iraq's largest Sunni political bloc for withdrawing from the Cabinet last week, saying the bloc has "shown sympathy, if not outright support to terrorist forces" including affiliates of al-Qaida.

BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military reported yesterday the deaths of eight more troops in Iraq, and fighters believed to be with Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Al Mahdi militia pounded British bases in the southern port city of Basra. Included in the latest U.S. military deaths were three soldiers killed yesterday in a car bomb attack in Salahaddin province in the north; one killed south of Baghdad; one soldier who died in an ambush Friday in Taji, north of Baghdad; and two more who were killed Wednesday in bombing east of Baghdad.

AMMAN, JORDAN -- The resignation of six allies of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr from the Iraqi Cabinet could provide an opportunity for the ruling Shiite coalition to broaden its government, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday. Some critics of the government have suggested that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, should bring more Sunni legislators into his government as a goodwill gesture. Also, Gates said he would like to see al-Maliki use the new vacancies to jump-start the stalled reconciliation process among Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds.

Baghdad, Iraq -- The U.S. military released a senior member of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's movement yesterday at the request of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The decision, officials said, was made with the hope of easing tensions between al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Sheik Ahmed Shibani, who had been in prison for 2 1/2 years, was handed over to the office of the Shiite prime minister. "In consultation with the prime minister and following his request, coalition leaders determined that Sheik Shibani, who was detained since 2004, could play a potentially important role in helping to moderate extremism and foster reconciliation in Iraq," Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman, said in a statement.

The invitation for dinner with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came from the Iranian Mission to the United Nations. The scene was the darkly brocaded Barclay Room of New York's Intercontinental Hotel. A small group of journalists, along with Iran experts from academia and think tanks, sat around a square table lit by chandeliers, and set with plates of oriental salads and vases of roses. No alcohol was served. Mr. Ahmadinejad swept in after giving a defiant speech last week on Iran's nuclear program at the United Nations.

PHILADELPHIA -- Iraq's official election results should sober anyone who still believes that elections automatically make a country democratic. In Iraq, religious parties eclipsed secular parties and sharp sectarian splits will make it very difficult for Iraqis to form a government. More violence is likely to emerge from the vote. Political developments in Baghdad over the next few weeks, not military battles, will determine the final Iraqi outcome. We'll soon see whether Iraqi Sunnis, who fuel the insurgency, can form a national unity government with Shiites and Kurds, a government that would undercut the insurgency and enable the United States to draw down troops.

DAVOS, Switzerland -- The pristine, snowy mountains of this ski town present a picture totally different from scenes of bloody Baghdad. But Iraq is far from absent at the Davos World Economic Forum, where it is the subject of several high-level panels. I had the chance to talk at length with two of Iraq's smartest and most competent political leaders, Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi (a Shiite) and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari (a Kurd). What they said - about the U.S. troop "surge," the prospects for Iraq's government, and the need for intense Mideast diplomacy to keep the war from spreading - should be factored into America's Iraq debate.

WASHINGTON -- In a sobering new assessment of Iraq, senior Pentagon officials sketched out a bloody landscape yesterday of sectarian violence spreading beyond Baghdad and execution-style assassinations and terrorist bombings by increasingly entrenched private militias and death squads. "This is probably the most complex combat environment we have seen since the war began," said Rear Adm. William Sullivan, the top strategic planner for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The severity and breadth of the Defense Department report, which is required four times a year by Congress, appeared to undercut recent statements by President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that conditions in Iraq are difficult but that steady progress is being made and that, as Rumsfeld put it Tuesday, "The question isn't whether we can win. It's whether we have the will to persevere to win."