Al-Hawza and Rebellion
At the end of March 2004, Coalition authorities in Iraq shut down Sadr's newspaper, Al Hawza, on charges of inciting violence (as a side note, al-Hawza is also the name of a religious college in Najaf which was headed by his father). The Coalition authorities said false reporting, including articles that ascribed suicide bombings to Americans, could touch off violence.
Sadr responded by mobilizing many Shi'a followers to demonstrations protesting the closure of the newspaper; the demonstrations escalated throughout the week in number and militancy. On April 4 fighting broke out in Najaf, Sadr City and Basra. Sadr's al-Mahdi Army took over several points and attacked coalition soldiers, killing dozens and taking many casualties of its own in the process. At the same time Sunni rebels in the cities of Baghdad, Samarra, Ramadi and most notably Fallujah staged uprisings as well, causing to date the most serious challenge to coalition control of Iraq.
Paul Bremer, then the U.S. administrator in Iraq, declared on April 5, 2004 that the militant cleric was an outlaw and that uprisings by the cleric and his followers would not be tolerated. [2] It emerged that some months earlier an Iraqi judge had issued an arrest warrant for al-Sadr on charges relating to the murder of al-Khoei; this had apparently been kept secret for some time but was now announced publicly by Bremer. Several senior U.S. politicians opined that the revolt would push back the date for the transfer of power to the IGC, but the handover nevertheless occurred on June 28, 2004, two days ahead of schedule.
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