The Mahdi Army was an Iraqi Shia Islamist militia which was active in southern Iraq from 2004 to 2008 during the Iraq War. It was founded by the populist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and 500 of his loyal seminary students in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, and the Mahdi Army dispensed aid to local citizens and provided security in the Shi'ite slums from looters following the United States-led invasion of Iraq. In June 2003, al-Sadr formalized the militia, and it grew to 10,000 fighters and operated shadow governments in some areas. In April 2004, following the closure of his newspaper, Sadr joined the Iraqi insurgency against the US-led Coalition forces in the "Iraqi spring fighting of 2004", rising up in Najaf, Kufa, Kut, and Sadr City. Fighting also occurred in Karbala, Nasiriyah, Amarah, and Basra, with the Mahdi Army overwhelming the Spanish garrisons of Najaf and Kufa and the Ukrainian garrison of Kut. However, the Coalition gradually retook Nasiriyah, Amarah, and Basra, and they later retook most of the other Mahdi Army stronghold. Over 2,000 Mahdi Army militiamen were killed during the spring fighting. In Baghdad, the Siege of Sadr City lasted until 2008. Sadr ordered his troops not to attack the Iraqi security forces, instead insisting that his men were fighting against the foreign occupation. In 2005, the Mahdi Army's leaders ran for public office with the National Independent Cadres and Elites and the United Iraqi Alliance, and violence once again broke out in the 2006 Battle of Amarah before another truce was agreed upon from 2007 to 2008. In March 2008, the Iraqi government cracked down on the insurgents in the Battle of Basra, and, in August, al-Sadr disbanded the Mahdi Army and replaced it with the Promised Day Brigades. In 2004, the Mahdi Army was revived as the "Peace Companies".
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