Rogue elements of the Mahdi Army are ignoring Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's seven-month-old ceasefire order.
Many members of the Mahdi Army in Najaf hail from farther afield and are resented by local residents.
Does that mean the Mahdi Army lays down its arms and, you know, lays their guns and puts up their hands?
One senior Mahdi Army commander said the cease-fire is still in effect, and he blames Iraq's security forces for the current impasse.
Muqtada el-Sadr's Mahdi Army, although Iraq-based, was also supported by the Iranians.
He said today that he would go after the Mahdi Army militia and that he would not stop until all militias in Iraq were disbanded.
There are also Shia insurgents, the Mahdi Army of Moqtada al-Sadr.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shia cleric, has restrained the hands of the most militant of the armed Shia groups, such as Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
Many Basrawis use the language of apocalypse to describe the rival Shia parties and their militias (the biggest calling itself the Mahdi Army) that are struggling for control of their city.
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Whereas in April the Americans said they wanted to arrest Mr Sadr for the murder last year of a fellow cleric, Mr Allawi has indicated that he would be happy if the Mahdi Army simply left Najaf.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made some very tough statements, saying that any political group that had a militia would not be allowed to participate in the upcoming provincial elections, and that was a direct statement against the Mahdi Army.
Perhaps more worrying, the Sadrists' withdrawal from the government could now make it harder for Mr Maliki to persuade their Mahdi Army militiamen to put away their guns, especially when Sunni bombers continue their carnage on this week's horrifying scale.
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Mr Crocker added that Muqtada al-Sadr, perhaps the most powerful anti-American Iraqi Shia leader, has now told his men to stop attacking Iraqis or Americans, prompted perhaps by widespread revulsion at attacks by his militia, the Mahdi Army, on fellow-Shia worshippers in the holy city of Karbala.
Even some preachers loyal to the fiery Shia preacher Muqtada al-Sadr, who used to sneer at the notion of a fair vote under American occupation, have become far more pliant since he ended the uprising of his rebel Mahdi Army in the Shias' holiest city, Najaf, in August.
And what we're being told by local Iraqi police who are here with the American forces is that they're doing that to make sure that the Mahdi Army fighters cannot be resupplied, and to also stop Mahdi Army fighters from leaving Sadr City and going to other areas and spreading the instability.
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