Sadr Returns to the Spotlight

Moqtada al-Sadr emerged on Friday from months of laying low to lead 6,000 Iraqi worshipers in chants against the United States: “No, no for Satan. No, no for America. No, no for the occupation. No, no for Israel.” Always a crowd pleaser.

BBC:

Moqtada Sadr, the radical Iraqi Shia cleric, has appeared in public for the first time in months.

US officials said he had gone into hiding in Iran in January, ahead of the US troop surge in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. This was never confirmed.

The cleric appeared at Friday prayers in Kufa, in eastern Iraq, surrounded by bodyguards and aides.

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