At the end of March, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, with U.S. political and military support, launched Operation Knight’s Assault to assert government control over Basra and several other cities dominated by rebel cleric Moktada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. George Bush called the assault a “defining moment in the history of a free Iraq.” The U.S. … Continue reading The Rise of Moktada al-Sadr