Portraits of Shiite resistance

Three leaders in Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon are united in theology and a common fight against the West.

from the June 7, 2007 edition

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Ahmadinejad is a former member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and was politically active with Islamic political groups while studying engineering in Tehran in the 1970s.

Since becoming president, his fiery comments aimed at Israel – it's a "tumor" that must be "wiped from the world scene" – have won popular praise from both Sunnis and Shiites across the Middle East and turned him into an anti-American and anti-Israeli icon.

Moqtada al-Sadr

Son of revered Shiite cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, Moqtada al-Sadr took the family mantle when his father was assassinated in 1999. The younger Mr. Sadr, now believed to be 33, inherited scores of his father's devotees.

Soon after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, Sadr turned his attention to fighting the US occupation. On March 28, 2004, protests by his followers turned violent after the Americans shut down his newspaper for praising the 9/11 attacks as a "blessing from God."

The unrest spread in southern Iran and Sadr loyalists clashed with US forces first in April 2004 and in August in Najaf. Later, Americans issued an arrest warrant for the cleric for ordering the murder of a US-installed rival cleric in a Shiite shrine.

After the violence subsided, arresting the popular cleric no longer appeared possible. He has remained free, growing in influence especially in Sadr City, the Shiite ghetto in Baghdad.

The Mahdi Army is believed to be responsible for much of the sectarian violence in Baghdad, with death squads killing thousands of Sunnis.

During the past two years, Sadr has become a significant religious and political force in Iraq with 30 members of his movement in parliament and six cabinet ministers until they resigned in April over the government's unwillingness to set a timetable for US withdrawal.

Sadr disappeared from public view for several months this year, reportedly hiding in Iran. He reemerged in Iraq on May 25, calling again for US forces to leave Iraq and reaching out to Sunnis as "brothers."

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