On September 20, 2003, the Shia Muslims of Najaf, fed up with the poor security reigning there and after the death of Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim, have formed their own militia. The local Iraqi police closed their eyes and let them help. They have already arrested an ex-senior Ba'athist official, Karim Ghaith. He was interrogated and then handed him to the police. Other militia groups are also operating in Iraq and so far there was no confrontation with the Americans who do not recognise or accept them.

- On April 12, 2004, the Americans showed again their inability to understand foreign people, especially the Muslins. Lieutenant General Sanchez said that his troops will "kill or capture" Moqdata al-Sadr the leader of the radical Shia insurgents who is now believed to be hiding in a Mosque in the holy city of Najaf. This at the same time as local Iraqi leaders negotiate a deal between him and the Americans. Al-Sadr withdrew his fighters from parts of Najaf but, if he is arrested or killed, then this will unite Sunnis and Shiites and the fighting will start again for good.
- On April 13, 2004, more than 2,500 US soldiers are gathering on the outskirts of the holy city of Najaf ready to invade it to catch Moqdata al-Sadr and destroy his militia. Al-Sadr said that he is ready to die for Iraq but he is also ready to negotiate.
- On April 15, 2004, a strange quietness is reigning in Najaf. The city is still mainly under the control of Moqdata al-Sadr's Jaish al-Mahdi militia but at least 2,500 US soldiers are surrounding the city. Talks are still going on between the American military authorities and Iraqi negotiators to avoid new bloodbaths in Najaf and Falluja. On April 21, 2004, a deal between the US military authorities in Iraq and the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr could be soon agreed. However the USA still insists that al-Sadr should stand trial for last year murder of a moderate cleric and this could derail the whole plan. His followers of the Jawad al-Maliki militia will not agree to this.
- On May 5, 2004, the Iraqi most influential Shia have told the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to give up his weapons and negotiate with the Americans. This seems to be an attempt to avoid a direct attack on Najaf by the 2,000 US troops that are surrounding the city. Al-Sadr is asked to pull out its fighters from Najaf but also from Kerbala that he controls at least in part.
- On May 6, 2004, US troops went on the offensive against Moqtada al-Sadr's fighters in Najaf and Kerbala. Some tanks entered the cities and moved close to the holy shrines. Heavy fighting between the US soldiers and the fighters took place in Kufa.
- In Najaf the US soldiers took over the governor's offices and in Kerbala they destroyed a Moqtada al-Sadr office.
- On May 14, 2004, many American tanks moved into the sacred city of Najaf damaging slightly the Imam Ali shrine, the most sacred shrine of the Shia religion. Much fighting took place in Najaf's cemetery known as "The Valley of Peace" where Shia Muslims of all over the world want to be buried. The Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani's supporters said that they were sad about the damages made to the shrine. They asked the American soldiers and Moqtada al-Sadr's fighters to leave Najaf.
- On May 27, 2004, the US military authorities have made a deal with Moqtada al-Sadr. Accordingly, the US soldiers will leave the centre of Najaf and Kufa and the insurgents will abandon both cities. However the coalition forces will still patrol both cities to insure security until enough Iraqi policemen are recruited and trained to take over.
- On June 16, 2004, the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, ordered his fighters to leave Najaf and Kerbala and go back to their hometowns. This comes one day after President Bush said that he would not oppose Moqtada entering Iraqi politics.
- On August 5, 2004, fighting resumed in Najaf between insurgent followers of Moqtada al-Sadr and US and Iraqi troops. The ceasefire that had been going on since June seems to be over. Moqtada al-Sadr's soldiers shot down a US helicopter. The two pilots were injured. Each side said that the other is responsible for breaching the truce.
- August 6, 2004, was the second day of big battles between the Shia insurgents linked to Moqtada al-Sadr and the US troops in the holy city of Najaf where the Americans said that they have killed 300 insurgents. This includes the civilians -men, women, and children- as for the Americans, any dead Iraqi is an insurgent. Planes and helicopters were used to bomb the city and it people 15 months after the end of the main hostilities according to President Bush. The US appointed governor of Najaf, Adnan al-Zurfi, who said that the number of dead insurgents could be as high as 400 and the number of members of the Mahdi militia arrested was above 1,000.! Aides to Moqtada al-Sadr put the number of dead fighters to 36! It is a Korean-type poker game: the winner is the one who give the highest figure! It is difficult to believe the casualty figures released by The Americans as the insurgents are not so numerous. The only explanation possible is that the dead are civilians, not fighters.
- On August 8, 2004, the interim Prime Minister, Allawi visited the embattled city of Najaf to try to impose his authority on the southern part of the country. He told Moqtada al Sadr's Mahdi fighters, to leave the city.
- Moqtada al-Sadr appeared in public in Najaf and said that he will go on fighting for as long as it takes and that he will stay in Najaf. At the same time the members of his Mahdi army exchanged fire with the US soldiers. The US militaries authorities said that they killed 360 militants but the hospitals replied that they saw 23 dead -including five Iraqi policemen and four Iraqi soldiers- and 98 injured. However it is known that the Mahdi army treats their wounded men outside the hospitals. In the Najaf main police station there were 300 Mahdi army prisoners. Among the prisoners were police officers from Basra who changed side. The Iraqi said that they arrested 1,200 people in the last week but 600m have already been left free. Whom to believe is up to you!
- On August 10, 2004, US tanks pushed into Najaf's vast cemetery-turned-battlefield as helicopter gunships fired on Shiite militiamen hiding there. American patrols with loudspeakers warned militants to leave or face death. Explosions shook the streets and black smoke rose over parts of the city, but the fighting with militant Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia appeared more sporadic than in recent days.
- On August 11, 2004, journalists in Najaf have found two British young Muslim men of Iraqi origin fighting with Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army near the Imam Ali shrine against the American soldiers. They are the first two British citizens known to have joined the Mahdi army so far. They arrived in Najaf on August 9 and were soon involved in military duty.
- On August 11, 2004, US and Iraqi forces are preparing for a major assault against Shia Muslim fighters in the holy city of Najaf. One of Iraq's deputy presidents, Ibrahim Jaafari, has called for the US-led forces to withdraw and allow Iraqi security forces to take over.
- On August 12, 2004 the US-led forces have surrounded the centre of Najaf in an effort to defeat a weeklong uprising by Shia militants. There was heavy fighting as US and Iraqi troops sealed off the city's Imam Ali Shrine where followers of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr are now barricaded. The troops, backed by helicopters and tanks, have kept out of the holy site.
- On August 12, 2004, the American troops increased their attacks on Najaf. Soon they will be near the Imam Ali mosque. They are very prudent at the same time as if they take over the mosque there could be a general uprising in Iraq and this they do not want.
- The radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has been wounded in fighting in the holy city of Najaf on August 13, 2004. Mr Sadr is reported to have suffered three separate injuries, but his condition is stable. However officials from the interior and defence ministries have denied that the cleric was hurt.
- On August 14, 2004, negotiations continued with the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Najaf and the threat of a widespread Shia revolt is still very strong. Demonstrators gathered in seven cities in Iraq and in neighbouring Iran to vent their anger at the assault on Sadr's forces launched by US Marines. Truce talks aimed at ending violence broke down. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr issued a list of demands, including a US withdrawal from Najaf and amnesty for all his fighters, in exchange for disarming his followers and pulling them out of the revered Imam Ali shrine and Najaf's old city, where they have taken refuge.
- On August 14, 2004, thousands of Iraqis are on their way to Najaf to support al-Sadr, who now expects Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to order an attack on the holy mosque where the rebel leader is claiming sanctuary. An al-Sadr aide blamed the failure of the peace talks on Allawi. He claimed agreement had been reached on all points, but that the interim prime minister had ordered an end to negotiation and told his officials to return to Baghdad. The violence has now spread to other Shiite communities throughout Iraq and drawn in supporters from other parts of the Middle East.
- On August 15, 2004, Moqtada al-Sadr repeated that he will stay in his Najaf until victory or death, diminishing hopes of a compromise with US forces encircling the city's holiest shrines. Encouraged by mass demonstrations condemning a US offensive aimed at crushing his nine-day uprising, Mr. al-Sadr was defiant toward what he called the "dictatorial" interim government trying to negotiate an end to the standoff.
- On August 16, 2004, battles started again in Najaf. Tank and automatic gunfire could be heard throughout the Old City on the second day of intermittent clashes after talks broke down between Sadr and the Iraqi government.
- On August 16, 2004, Iraq's national conference voted to send a team to Najaf to try to end a standoff between US-led forces and supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr. Sporadic clashes were reported as militiamen remained barricaded inside the Imam Ali shrine. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shia cleric who is undergoing medical treatment in London, is worried about the violence in Najaf and wants to return as soon as he can. Sistani's health could prove crucial to Iraq's stability. He stands against the resistance of the young Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
- On August 17, 2004 a delegation of leading Iraqis went to Najaf but failed to end a standoff between Shia militiamen and US-led forces in the holy city. The delegates met the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr in the Imam Ali shrine but he refused to see them.
- On August 20, 2004, rebels loyal to Moqtada Sadr in Najaf are holding fresh talks with Iraqi religious leaders about the control of the Imam Ali shrine. US tanks have encircled the shrine after an intense bombardment of rebel positions overnight. But Mr Sadr, whose fighters are holed up at the shrine, is vowing to continue fighting US-led forces. Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi told that troops would not attack the mosque to flush out Mr Sadr's fighters.
- Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani returned to Iraq on August 25, 2004. Al-Sistani, 73, underwent an angioplasty, a procedure to unblock a coronary artery, August 13 in London. He had left Iraq August 6, shortly after fighting broke out in Najaf, where he lives. US and Iraqi forces have battled militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr for more than two weeks there. Al-Sistani's return could play a crucial role in stabilizing the situation.
- Accompanied by thousands of his supporters, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, on Thursday August 26, 2004, travelled to Najaf to try to end the standoff involving Shia fighters led by a radical cleric, Moqtada Sadr. Before Ayatollah Sistani arrived, Iraq's interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, ordered his forces to observe a 24-hour ceasefire in the city. Ali al-Sistani, persuaded the rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to accept a deal ending a three-week uprising in Najaf. Iraq's government agreed to the deal brokered by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The plan involves Sadr's Mehdi Army militiamen leaving the sacred Imam Ali shrine by 0600 GMT Friday August 27. US forces are also to leave Najaf, with security being turned over to Iraqi police. Najaf is to be declared a weapons-free zone, and the government is to compensate victims of the fighting.
- On August 19, 2004, US warplanes bombed areas near the shrine where radical Shiite militia were hiding and the ancient cemetery where Sadr's Mahdi militiamen have fought US troops for two weeks. "This is the final call for them to disarm, vacate the holy shrine, engage in political work and consider the interests of the homeland," interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said. In a letter signed by Sadr, the cleric urged his militia to hand over the Imam Ali shrine to the city's religious authority but rejected demands that he disbands the Mahdi Army and join the country's political process. But there were doubt the letter could be a fake.
- On August 21, 2004, Moqtada Sadr' s army, remains in control of the shrine in the holy city of Najaf after 16 days of fighting with US-led forces.
- Senior officials in the Bush administration said on August 21, 2004, that the decision to confront Moqtada al-Sadr and his fighters in Najaf, and to use military force, including American air support if necessary, will be made by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and his government and by them alone. 3,500 Iraqi Army forces are trained to conduct an operation like removing the rebels from the shrine in Najaf where they have been holed up for 17 days, and the Iraqis would carry out the major part of any operation.
- On August 23, 2004, US warplanes, artillery and Marines have engaged Shiite militiamen in a fierce battle around the Imam Ali mosque shrine in Najaf in some of the heaviest fighting since the 20-day-old rebellion erupted. Smoke and a fiery glow rose above Najaf's Old City within a mile of the shrine. US tanks kept up their encirclement of the city's heart. Sadr's whereabouts are unknown but he could have fled to Sulaimaniya, in Kurdish northern Iraq. But Sadr's aides and local government officials in Sulaimaniya denied the report.
- The Iraqi interim government sent its national guard troops into the streets outside Najaf's Imam Ali shrine for the first time on August 24, 2004 and threatened to kill or imprison the cleric whose militant followers are holding the shrine. Iraqi Defence Minister Hazem Shaalan declared that Sadr had to surrender the shrine or face an assault by Iraqi forces. Support for Sadr appeared to have been waning in recent days. Members of his Al Mahdi militia have been seen slipping away from the.
- Iraqi security forces tightened their grip on the streets around a key shrine in Najaf on August 25, 2004, after the government warned Shiite rebels inside they would be killed if they did not surrender.
- On August 27, 2004, a peace deal to end clashes in Najaf appears to be holding, as Shia rebels leave the Iraqi city's Imam Ali mosque and US forces pull back. The deal was mediated by Iraq's top Shia leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, to end three weeks of fighting. This morning the city was peaceful as thousands of Shia pilgrims thronged the Imam Ali mosque; they had come to Najaf from all over Iraq, heeding a call by Mr Sistani to converge on the city. Some wept and kissed the walls of the shrine as they entered. Many of the fighters melted away with the worshippers as they left the shrine in the early afternoon and dozens of militants were seen piling their weapons on to carts.
- On August 28, 2004, the people in Najaf have been enjoying their first day of peace in more than three weeks after a truce between Shia rebels and US-led forces. Fighters loyal to dissident preacher Moqtada Sadr earlier withdrew from their base at the shrine of Imam Ali. Shia spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Sistani has been meeting other clerics to discuss the new situation. Questions remain over weapons still held by the fighters who were meant to disarm under the peace deal. As Iraqi police took charge on the streets after, Mr Sadr's Mehdi Army was allowed to disperse. American troops are adopting a lower profile, but are still patrolling some areas at the request of the Iraqi interim government. Mr Sadr's fighters left with their weapons, or concealed them in different parts of the city. Mr Sadr appears to have been granted an amnesty exempting him from arrest and he remains a potent political force. Three weeks of fierce clashes between the Mehdi Army and US soldiers have devastated several neighbourhoods and reportedly left hundreds dead and injured.
- In Najaf on November 29, 2004, the police arrested their own security chief accused of plotting the murder of many authorities including the local governor.
- On September 6, 2005 the US troops handed the Iraqi army control of Najaf, a Shiite city that saw bitter fighting last year. This is a sign of the uneven pattern of insecurity in this fragmented country.