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(Photo: AP)
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The U.S. closure of a weekly newspaper run by radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in March 2004 invigorated his movement and its opposition to the American-led occupation. By August, al-Sadr's fighters were locked in battle against U.S. troops and Iraqi government forces in Najaf and other Shiite strongholds across the country.
An Iraqi judge issued a murder arrest warrant for al-Sadr, for the slaying of rival Shiite cleric Abdel-Majid al-Khoei shortly after the U.S.-led invasion of the country.
The April announcement of the warrant came a day after violent clashes between militiamen loyal to al-Sadr that killed 52 Iraqis, eight U.S. soldiers and a Salvadoran soldier - some of the worst gun battles since the ouster of Saddam Hussein.
Al-Sadr's supporters are well-organized and led by young, motivated clerics whose respect for their 30-year-old leader arises largely from the reverence accorded his late father, a senior cleric gunned down in 1999 by suspected agents of Saddam Hussein's regime.
His movement's mix of religion, politics and community work provides a welcome platform of self-assertion for poor Shiites in Baghdad and Shiite-dominated cities in Iraq's impoverished south.
Their paper, Al-Hawza, was closed for allegedly inciting violence against coalition troops.
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