Ready for Jihad.

UNITED States; IRAQ

This is an article that discusses the war in Iraq and the conflict between the United States and rebel groups in Falluja and Basra. It was another bloody week in Iraq as suicide bombers struck in the southern city of Basra, killing some 70 people, including more than 20 children on their way to school. Maclean's Contributing Editor Adnan R. Khan, who is based in Istanbul and currently on assignment in Iraq, filed this report on al-Sadr and the threat he and his forces pose. What comes next could prove to be a defining moment for post-war Iraq. He claimed Ansar al-Islam, the Sunni terrorist group connected to al-Qaeda and based in northern Iraq, had sent a letter to his office announcing its support for the Shia uprising (Ansar al-Islam is widely believed to be behind the most devastating bombings over the past year, including the attack last week in Basra). The situation has been in the making for more than a decade: after the collapse of Iraq's education system during the 12-year-long UN-imposed economic embargo, many young people, especially those living in poverty in places like Sadr City (it used to be Saddam City) and the neglected south of Iraq, turned increasingly to religious studies.