Shi'a Iraq Cheat Sheet

If you can't remember anything else, remember this:

1. Party
Islamic Supreme Council in Iraq
Leader
Abdulaziz al-Hakim
Militia
Badr

2. Party
Sadrists (informal)
Leader
Moqtada al-Sadr
Militia
Medhi Army

For the conflict, what is important to know is that the US has backed al-Hakim and the form Shi'i party as both part of its debaathification processes and as part of its fight against Moqtada al-Sadr and the threat if perceives from the Medhi Army.

A recent report by International Crisis Group questions the wisdom al-Hakim's alignment with the US. Read it...it's pretty interesting.

The al-Hakim family is a powerful shi'a line from Najaf and looks towards Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani as its Supreme Religious Leader (the place Sistani occupies in Iraq is comparable to that of Khamanei in Iran, except they have different opinions about the relationship between the Supreme Religious Leader and the government, which is why in Iran everything has to be approved by Khamanei, and in Iraq not everything goes through Sistani...this difference relates to their views of the leadership or guardianship of the jurist, velayat al-fakih).

VC