US Officials: Moqtada al-Sadr Left Iraq for Iran
14 February 2007
U.S. officials say radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr left Iraq for Iran two to three weeks ago.
Senior Bush administration officials tell reporters that Sadr left by car for Tehran, as thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops began moving into Baghdad to crack down on militias and insurgents. They say he is believed to still be in Iran.
The officials tell reporters that Sadr may have left Iraq, in part, because of a possible fracture between extremists in his Mahdi Army militia and his political bloc, which holds 30 seats in Iraq's parliament.
These reports of Sadr in Iran could not be independently confirmed.
Bush administration officials have accused Iran of smuggling weapons into Iraq for Shi'ite militias. The administration has repeatedly warned Iran against fueling violence in Iraq, and U.S. forces have detained a number of Iranian officials in recent raids.
Also on Tuesday, the Iraqi commander of the Baghdad security crackdown said his country will seal its borders with Iran and Syria for three days. Iraqi Lieutenant General Abboud Gambar did not say when the border closures will begin.
In other news Tuesday, a suicide truck bombing near a Baghdad college killed 15 people.
On Monday, a series of bombings in two predominantly Shi'ite markets in Baghdad killed at least 87 people, despite the security crackdown.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
