Iraq ~ Iran West

[Exotix]

Once targeted for extermination by the U.S., anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr Returns to Iraq


Today


Anti-U.S. Cleric Returns to Iraq - The Daily Beast

GOING GLOBAL - EAST MEETS WEST - ARTICLES OF INTEREST: Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr returns to Iraq after self-imposed exile




In another sign of deteriorating U.S. influence in Iraq, the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has returned to the country from exile in Iran, where he went in 2007 after his Shiite militia fought many off-and-on battles with U.S. forces. Sadr returned some months after his party won 40 seats in the Iraqi parliament, allowing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to retain another term.

Sadr has long called for the departure of U.S. troops from his country, and his return will complicate matters for remaining U.S. forces, who plan to be out by the end of 2011.

Once he arrived in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Sadr toured the home of his father, a cleric who challenged Saddam Hussein's rule and was killed by Sunnis, and went with his bodyguards to an important shrine for prayers.





Moqtada al-Sadr surrounded by bodyguards arrives in Najaf this week, after nearly four years in exile from Iraq.





Send your Farsi thank-you cards to Bush ...

[mrvette]

They can shoot a pix, they can pull a trigger.....kill the bastard....

but then again, we never should have put boots on the ground there anyway.....trashcanistan either....

simple war to win....6 weeks or less....