Shops and government offices reopened and army units manned checkpoints Saturday around a southern Iraqi city where gunmen loyal to an anti-American Shiite cleric briefly seized control in a bold confrontation with local security forces. Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army held Amarah for several hours in an embarrassingly strong showing against security forces largely controlled by Iraq’s other main Shiite militia, the Badr Brigade. Twenty-five gunmen and police died in gunbattles before the Iraqi army moved in to retake the city of 750,000 people at the head of Iraq’s famous marshlands where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers draw close together. Full Story
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