The bloc loyal to anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called for parliament to be dissolved and early elections to be held, the latest move in a political standoff that has stoked sectarian tensions.
Anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called on his followers to cease all attacks against US forces operating in Iraq. But he cautioned that if US troops do not leave by the end of the year, as promised, anti-American violence would resume.
Egypt's Coptic community on edge after a church attack kills 21 people on New Year's Day. Many fear that anti-Christian sentiment is being fueled by militant groups. An appeal from Israel - premier Benjamin Netanyahu asks the US for clemency for former spy Jonathan Pollard. And introducing Qatar's newest museum - it's dedicated to 20th century and contemporary art from the Middle East.
Infamous Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, blamed for a string of bloody uprisings against American forces in 2007, returned to Iraq Wednesday after warming relations between his faction and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Supporters of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are voting on who they want as premier after March elections made them the largest religious body in the Iraqi government. The poll is expected to give them clout in future talks with other blocs.
Iraq's Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr - not seen in public for nearly two years - held face-to-face talks on Friday with Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, Anatolia news agency reported.
Thousands of supporters of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr turned out to protest the US-led occupation of Iraq on the sixth anniversary of the toppling of a Saddam Hussein statue in a Baghdad square that symbolised the end of his regime.
Iraqi politicians backed by anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr (pictured) say they will lodge an official complaint about votes being excluded in last weekend's provincial elections, claiming that election results differ greatly from their estimates.
FRANCE 24 correspondents Lucas Menget and Guillaume Martin spent a day in Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. In this poor neighbourhood patrolled by the Mehdi army, US forces are not welcome.
In this slum suburb of Baghdad, heartland of firebrand Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, residents burn the Stars and Stripes as their impatience at the occupation threatens to boil over. Our special correspondents take the pulse.
