Shi-ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr is back doing what makes him popular–west bashing.In a sermon at Friday prayers in the southern city of Kufa, his home base, he called Israel, Britain and the United States the “evil trio”.He returned to Iraq after a four months stay in Iran.That is what the US generals are saying. Al-Sadr’s aides say he never left the country.
Iraq today is a hotch-potch of Shi-ite, Sunni ,Kurdish and many Islamic groups.According to estimates there are about 23 militia groups in the country.The Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki is a puppet in the hands of Shi-ite groups like al-Sadr’s Mahdi army and the Badr army of Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq [SCIRI].Both the Shi-ite groups in turn are Iranian puppets.
Coming back to al-Sadr;he has great political ambitions.He shrewdly avoided confrontation with the US forces when it started a major crackdown in February this year.He dissappeared from Iraq and ordered his top commanders to do so and avoided losses.
Many Iraqis believe the US forces will leave soon.And al-Sadr believes he can step into the vacuum.He has sought to refashion himself as a nationalist leader, broadening his base of support .In his Friday sermon , he called on his supporters to protect Sunnis and Christians from attack.
He is further encouraged by the ill health of his main Shiite rival, cleric Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of the SCIRI, who has gone to Iran for treatment of lung cancer.
Analysts say al-Sadr will continue his anti-US chants and bide his time.His support base is in Sadr city , the Baghdad slum .Also he enjoys strong support in Najaf, the holy city . Also in Basra and other majority Shiite towns, including Kut, Nasiriya, Karbala-Iraq’s other holy Shiite city-and Kufa, where he regularly preaches .His Mahdi army group led two uprisings in 2004 against U.S. forces before agreeing to a ceasefire in October 2004. More recently it is accused of carrying out revenge killings and death-squad-style massacres against Sunnis.
US generals say he returned from Iran to re-assert his authority on the Mahdi army.It had begun to disintegrate with many fighters striking on their own.
