Maliki Aide: Sadr just on 'short visit' to Iran, says U.S. military reports are an 'unjustifiable provocation'

BAGHDAD -- Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr is on a short trip to Iran, an Iraqi official said Thursday, denying that the anti-US firebrand had fled a crackdown on militias such as his feared Mehdi Army.

Sadr will be back in Iraq soon, said Sami Al Askari, an aide to Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki, confirming a disputed claim by the US military but criticizing the Americans for stirring up controversy.

"According to my information he is in Iran on a short visit," said Askari, who is a member of parliament and one of Maliki's political advisors. "He has visited Iran many times. It is normal."

Sadr's supporters denied an announcement by the US military in Iraq that the hardline Shiite leader had left for Tehran at some point last month.

Askari expressed surprise that Sadr's movement, a key element in Maliki's ruling coalition, would have denied the report and warned that they were playing into the hands of the US military's "unjustifiable provocation."

The official said that Sadr has "an official invitation" to visit Iran.

Asked why the Americans would have made a point of revealing Sadr's visit, Askari said: "They tried to put it in the wrong context. Why should they try to provoke the Sadrists? Sometimes wisdom quits the mind of the Americans."

On Wednesday, US military spokesman Major General William Caldwell confirmed media reports that the firebrand cleric had gone to Tehran, igniting rumors that he had fled an impending crackdown on the Mehdi Army.

The Iranian government condemned the US statement as a provocation, but would not explicitly confirm or deny whether Sadr was on its territory.

"It's part of the psychological war that the United States has been waging against the Islamic Republic of Iran," said Mohammad Ali Hosseini, spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry. "For a while now, the Americans have been attempting to exploit the question of Moqtada Al Sadr to disguise their failure in Iraq," he said.

Read the rest at the Mid-East Times

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