Anti-American Shia Cleric Moqtada Sadr Has Returned To Iraq

Anti-American Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr

Muqtada Sadr, Snti-U.S. Cleric, Returns To Iraq -- L.A. Times

It's Muqtada Sadr's first return visit home since 2007. An assistant says the militant religious leader, whose Shiite fighters battled U.S. troops, is in Iraq to stay.

Reporting from Najaf, Iraq and Baghdad — Muqtada Sadr, the cleric whose Shiite fighters battled U.S. troops at the height of Iraq's civil war, returned to the country on Wednesday, an assistant said. It was the militant religious leader's first visit to his homeland since 2007.

Sadr arrived in the holy city of Najaf in the afternoon and toured the home of his late father, a legendary cleric who challenged Saddam Hussein's rule before dying at the hands of the late dictator's regime in 1999. In the evening, Sadr went to the hallowed grounds of Najaf's Imam Ali Shrine for prayers while police and bodyguards stood guard.

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More News on the return Of Muqtada Sadr

Radical Cleric Returns to Iraq After Years in Iran -- New York Times
Anti-American Shi'ite Cleric Al-Sadr Returns to Iraq -- Voice of America
Radical Cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr Returns To Iraq From Exile -- RTT News
Al-Sadr back in Iraq stronghold -- Al Jazeera
Al-Sadr makes low-key return to Iraq -- The Guardian
Radical cleric Sadr returns to Iraq as hero -- AFP
Sadr returns to Iraq -- UPI
Factbox: Key facts about Iraq's Moqtada al-Sadr -- Reuters