Word: moqtada
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Where in the world is Moqtada al-Sadr? He hasn't been seen in public in several weeks, and he has not kept up his usual practice of leading Friday prayers at the Great Mosque in Kufa. Now U.S. officials are claiming the firebrand anti-American cleric fled to Iran two or three weeks ago, along with several commanders of his dreaded Mahdi Army militia. But senior Sadr officials in Baghdad have dismissed those claims as propaganda, and maintain he is still in his Najaf headquarters...
...majority of EFP attacks, the officials said, came from "rogue" elements of Moqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army. The officials would not go further than that to associate the leader of the powerful Shi'a militia to Iran. This is the same line the U.S. walks when attributing militia violence and death squad murders to the Mahdi Army. Sadr is the highest-profile - and likely the most effective single opponent - of the American presence in Iraq. But he is also a power broker in Iraq's government and a key supporter of the Iraqi prime minister. It is therefore politically tricky...
...said Abu Firas al-Saedi, a senior Dawa leader. "But the real question is: 'Why are the Arab states allowing terrorists to enter Iraq through their borders, and why are they financing them?'" That sentiment was echoed by parliamentarian Falah Shansal, from the Shi'a bloc of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. "There are groups in Saudi Arabia who finance terrorism in Iraq," he said. "Why are the Americans not talking about this...
...Taylor, 39, advises an Iraqi Army brigade that operates out of the old Ministry of Defense complex on the east bank of the Tigris - within sight of Sunni insurgent strongholds in Adhamiya and Haifa Street, and a short drive from Sadr City, where the Shi'ite militia of Moqtada Sadr rules the streets...
...Sadr's forces] certainly enjoy political top cover," Taylor says. "There is an undeniable relationship between Moqtada Sadr and Maliki, and that relationship has not been broken...