Fox News reports:
Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is planning to disarm the Mahdi Army by turning the militia into a civic and social service organization, a significant strategic shift, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. In a brochure obtained by the paper and confirmed by Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi, Sadr’s chief spokesman, the Mahdi Army will now be guided by Shiite spirituality instead of anti-American militancy. . .
The move, according to the Wall Street Journal, could further enhance the stability of Iraq amid a government military crackdown and dwindling popular support. The brochure states the al-Mumahidoon will undergo an intellectual and scientific jihad focusing on education, religion and social justice.
“[The army] is not allowed to use arms at all,” the brochure reportedly says.
A few months ago, Time was trumpeting that Sadr had beaten us. (To the best of my knowledge, they have never retracted that, either.) Now he’s converting his “army” into a sort of Shiite rotary club. How the (purportedly) mighty have fallen.
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