Mahdi Army

The Mahdi Army was a Shia Iraqi militia founded by the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in 2003, after the American invasion of Iraq. It set out to resist the occupation, to protect Shiite areas and holy shrines such as the Imam Ali Shrine, and to provide security and services. It became widely known for the uprising of April 2004 and for battles with coalition forces in Najaf, Sadr City, Basra and Dhi Qar. A truce in June 2004 was followed by moves to turn the movement toward electoral politics, although fighting resumed that August. The militia grew to as many as ten thousand fighters, was disbanded in 2008 after a crackdown by Iraqi security forces, and was partly revived in 2014 as Saraya al-Salam to fight the Islamic State.