In Iraq the latest ceasefire between U.S. troops and Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr appears to be breaking apart. Sadr’s militia have seized a police station in Najaf and fighting there killed up to seven people. Earlier this week, the Guardian of London reported Sadr has been essentially banned from running for elective office by the head of the US occupation Paul Bremer. Bremer signed an order stating that, with immediate effect, members of illegal militias will be barred from holding political office for three years after leaving their illegal organization”. Sadr’s Mahdi Army is still considered an outlaw militia by the U.S. because it is not one of the nine militias who agreed to dissolve earlier this week in return that its members be offered pensions, retraining, or integration into the new security forces.