Military 'Sources': Sadr back in Iran

Where's Sadr?: The US military says Sadr has left Iraq for Iran, again. Sadr disappeared from public view shortly before the launch of a U.S.-led offensive in Baghdad in February but re-emerged in the holy Shi'ite Iraqi city of Kufa on May 25, and the military said he had been in Iran. Since Sadr's reappearance, six Sadrist cabinet ministers quit Maliki's cabinet in April over his refusal to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and Sadr's parliamentary bloc is boycotting the legislature in protest of the bombing of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra last month. Yesterday, Prime Minister Maliki said Sadr's Mahdi army was infiltrated by 'Baathists, Saddamists and gangs'. Today, Sadr's chief aide warned that 'the next few days will witness Maliki's end', coinciding with a CBS News report that Iraq's parliament would vote on a motion of no confidence on Maliki's government on July 15.

Fiery Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has gone back to neighbouring Iran, U.S. military sources in Baghdad said on Sunday.

Earlier this year, U.S. officials said the anti-American cleric was hiding in Iran to avoid a major security crackdown in Baghdad, although his aides say he never left Iraq.

"Our sources do show Moqtada in Iran," one U.S. military source said, declining to speculate on why Sadr had gone back...

The United States accuses Iran of fuelling sectarian violence with its support for Shi'ite militias such as the Mehdi Army. Tehran rejects this, accusing Washington of fomenting instability in the region.

Sadr has said nothing about where he had been while he was out of public view for months other than to describe it as a "successful disappearance".

His lower profile has coincided with a growing rift between his movement and Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Read the rest at Reuters/Alternet

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