Mahdi Army Bides Its Time.

• Author: Enders, David
• Position: Essay

Ali approaches me at a Friday prayer service in Sadr City. He wants to talk. A U.S. missile, he says, hit his house in May and killed his two sisters and badly wounded his mother. He is a member of the Mahdi militia and can no longer return home for fear the Iraqi army will arrest him. He is careful not to be seen talking to me, since unauthorized contact between us could get him in serious trouble with the militia. We quickly arrange to meet a few hours later at my hotel, and then he shakes my hand and walks away, disappearing again in the crowd of thousands of worshippers.

Like the bulk of the Mahdi militia, Ali has gone to ground. He abides by the cease-fire that Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered, but he chafes at the presence of Iraqi troops, who patrol Sadr City.

"We've had three Sad dams. The first is gone. The second wears the clothes of a cleric. The third wears sunglasses," Ali says, referring to Abdul Asia al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), a rival Shiite political party, and Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister.

The Iraqi army has taken up positions on Schwader Street, where thousands have prayed outdoors each Friday since the U.S. military deposed Hussein. The presence of the army at Friday prayers has heavy over tones of the previous government, which forbade such gatherings entirely. In parts of southern Iraq; the Iraqi military has shut down many of the Sadrists' mosques and arrested hundreds.

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On a recent Friday, men from Sadr's local office linked arms to prevent young worshippers from confronting the army.

"We are waiting for the cease-fire to stop so we can show the Iraqi army what we will do to them," Ali says.

At my hotel, Ali says the militia moved its heavy weaponry well before the Iraqi army arrived. He puts in a video of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) he says he is waiting to use. The bombs, he explains, are set off with anything ranging from a cell phone to a modified television remote control. He sets aside a quarter of his bus driver's salary, less than $20 a day, to pay for the weapons.

He is unapologetic about the campaign of sectarian cleansing the militia engaged in.

"We displaced families that were collaborators with the Americans and we displaced families that were Sahwa," he said, referring to the Sunni militiamen who have made a marriage of convenience with the United States.

"They are collaborating with the Americans," Ali says. "But who are the...