Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

412 • MAHDI ARMYwere the work of the ETA. The bombings, coupled with the hastyassertions of the Aznar government, which was already under widecriticism within Spain for its support of the U.S. intervention in Iraq,may have led to the defeat of the Aznar government in Spanish electionsheld three days after the bombings.The perpetrators were a small cell of Moroccan, Algerian, and SyrianMuslims claimed by the Memorial Institute for the Prevention ofTerrorism to be members of the Moroccan Islamic Combat Group(MICG), while Spanish jurists concluded instead that the group hadno direct affiliation with the MICG but rather was a small independentcell of Islamic fundamentalists inspired by al Qa’eda.MAHDI ARMY. The Jaish al-Mahdi is an Islamic fundamentalistShi’ite militia founded by Muqtada al Sadr in June 2003 originallycomprising about 500 seminary students in the northeastern slums ofBaghdad formerly called Saddam City but now renamed Sadr City.The militia began as a vigilante effort to restore security in the face ofthe initial chaos following the April 2003 overthrow of the regime ofSaddam Hussein by U.S.-led coalition forces. It later developed moreambitious political aims of opposing both the U.S. occupation andthe Iraqi interim government of Iyad Allawi, and of projecting Shi’itepolitical power within post-Saddam Iraq. The Mahdi Army began anuprising in earnest after 2 April 2004, with the U.S.-forced closure ofone of Muqtada al Sadr’s newspapers. The Madhi Army seized publicbuildings and police stations in Karbala, Kufa, al Kut, Najaf, and SadrCity. U.S. forces were able to regain control in most locations, killinghundreds of Mahdi Army members, until al Sadr agreed to a truceon 6 June 2004. Hostilities flared again in August 2004 when U.S.troops arrested al Sadr’s representative in Karbala on 31 July 2004 forblockading a police station. Although the Madhi Army forces in Najafnumbered around 2,000 and were outnumbered by the combined 2,000U.S. forces and 1,600 Iraqi security forces, the situation turned into astandoff, with Muqtada al Sadr entrenched within the Imam ‘Ali Shrine,unable to break through the encircling U.S. troops, who were underorders not to inflame Islamic opinion by violating the Shi’ite shrine.Through the intervention of the Grand Ayatullah Sayyid ‘Ali Hussainial Sistani, the confrontation was brokered into a renewed truce.The Mahdi Army numbers in late December 2006 were estimated bythe Iraq Survey Group as being around 60,000, although other reports