RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Troop buildup an early success? Anti-American cleric flees Iraq for Iran!

Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr fled Iraq for Iran ahead of a security crackdown in Baghdad and the arrival of 21,500 U.S. troops sent by President Bush to quell sectarian violence, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday.

Al-Sadr left his Baghdad stronghold some weeks ago, the official said, and is believed to be in Tehran, where he has family. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss U.S. monitoring activities, said fractures in al-Sadr's political and militia operations may be part of the reason for his departure. The move is not believed to be permanent, the official said.

Word of al-Sadr's departure coincides with an announcement that Iraq will close its borders with Iran and Syria for 72 hours as part of the drive to end the violence that has threatened to divide the capital along sectarian lines.

The U.S. official said it is not clear how firmly the radical Shiite cleric is controlling his organization and the associated Mahdi Army militia from exile.

"The question for us is to what extent his organization is going to participate in the political process," the official said, referring to al-Sadr's on-again, off-again relationship with the fragile democratic government in Baghdad.

Al-Sadr's departure was reported by several television networks Tuesday.

Al-Sadr's militia is widely seen as the main threat to Iraq's unity and high on the list of targets for the Baghdad security operation.

A ragtag but highly motivated militia that fought U.S. forces twice in 2004, the Mahdi Army is blamed for much of the sectarian strife shaking Iraq since a Shiite shrine was bombed by Sunni militants a year ago. U.S. officials have for months pressed Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to move against the militia, but he has so far done little to comply, largely because he does not want to lose al-Sadr's support.

Al-Sadr rose from obscurity in the aftermath of the ouster of Saddam Hussein to lead a movement of young, underprivileged Iraqis united by opposition to U.S. military presence as well as hunger for Shiite domination.

The cleric, who is in his mid-30s, is a master of street politics, and his young lieutenants can rally tens of thousands of protesters at short notice. Once wanted in the 2003 killing of a key cleric, al-Sadr gained much influence when his parliamentary bloc of 30 of 275 deputies was instrumental in al-Maliki's election.

Dismissed by older Shiite politicians as a dangerous upstart, al-Sadr set up the Mahdi Army militia in 2003. It is suspected of being behind the abduction and murder of thousands of Sunnis in what are known as death squad killings.

Two key members of al-Sadr's political and military organization were gunned down last week, the latest of as many as seven key figures in the al-Sadr organization killed or captured in the past two months.

The deaths and captures came after al-Maliki, also a Shiite, dropped his protection for the organization.

Shiite leaders insist that the Shiite militias flourished because the U.S. and its allies could not protect civilians. They say if the Sunni insurgents were crushed, the threat from Shiite hard-liners would go away.

Shiite politicians have long maintained that Sunni militants pose a greater threat to Iraq's stability. Thousands of Shiite civilians have been killed in bombings and suicide attacks carried out by al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni groups.

Thousands regularly cross the porous Iraq-Iran border, and Iran has been a popular destination for elite Shiite Iraq exiles. In Saddam's time those exiles included al-Maliki, who like other educated and politically active Shiites feared for his safety in Iraq.

The commander of the Baghdad security crackdown said Iraq will close its borders with Syria and Iran and announced other measures Thursday as word emerged that anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr had fled the country ahead of the pacification drive.

A senior U.S. official said in Washington Tuesday that the firebrand Shiite militia leader left Iraq some weeks ago and is believed to be in the Iranian capital, where he has family.

In an address to the nation on behalf of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Lt. Gen. Abboud Gambar ordered the return of unlawfully seized homes. He also said Baghdad's nighttime curfew would be expanded by an hour and permits allowing civilians to carry weapons in public would be suspended during all of the operation, which he suggested could last weeks.

Gambar's announcement came hours after a suicide truck bomber struck a government warehouse in a mainly Shiite Muslim neighborhood of the capital, killing at least 15 people and wounding 27, according to police and hospital officials. A parked car bomb also exploded near a bakery in another Shiite area, killing four people and wounding four, police said.

Gambar said those who had occupied homes of displaced families would be given a 15-day ultimatum to return the properties to the original owner or prove they had permission to be there.

"Everyone who is occupying property that is owned by a displaced person bears the legal responsibility for the protection of the property and its contents," he said.

"Occupants of properties belonging to the displaced have 15 days from publication of this statement to vacate these properties and return them along with their contents to their rightful owners," he added.

The general did not say when the borders would close, but another official said it was expected within two days. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists, added that the borders would only partly reopen after the 72-hour closing.

The United States has long charged that Iran and Syria let extremists use their territory to slip into Iraq to attack U.S. and Iraqi forces as well as civilians.

Iraqi authorities have routinely echoed the U.S. charges against Syria, but they rarely make that claim regarding Iran, with which Iraq's Shiite-led government has close relations.

Gambar said Baghdad's nighttime curfew would be extended by one hour when the security drive kicks off fully, running from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The U.S. military announced last week that the clampdown had already begun, although Iraqis have seen little evidence of that. President Bush has committed 21,500 more Americans to the operation, which is expected to involve a total of 90,000 Iraqi and U.S. soldiers.

The official in Washington said al-Sadr's move is not believed to be permanent. Al-Sadr left his Baghdad stronghold possibly because of fractures in his political and militia operations, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss U.S. monitoring activities.

The official said it is not clear how firmly the radical Shiite cleric is controlling his organization and the associated Mahdi Army militia from exile.

"The question for us is to what extent his organization is going to participate in the political process," the official said, referring to al-Sadr's on-again, off-again relationship with the fragile democratic government in Baghdad.

The militia of Al-Sadr, whose departure was reported by several television networks, is widely seen as the main threat to Iraq's unity and high on the list of targets for the Baghdad security operation.

The campaign is widely seen as possibly the U.S. military's final attempt to calm the city. It will be the third attempt by U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies to end violence in Baghdad since al-Maliki took office last May.

Gamber said he would report to al-Maliki weekly to discuss progress in the operation.

His address suggested Iraqi authorities plan to exercise wide powers while waging the crackdown. A criminal court, for example, will hold emergency hearings on cases such as murder, theft, rape, kidnapping, damaging public property and the possession and transfer of arms and ammunition, he said.

Gambar, a Shiite and a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War when he served in Saddam Hussein's army, said security forces also plan to monitor mail, parcels, telegrams and wireless communication devices during the operation.

He said security forces would try to avoid intruding in places of worship, but added that they would do so in "cases of extreme emergencies when it is feared that these places pose a threat to the lives of citizens or if they are used for unlawful purposes." U.S. and Iraqi authorities have often said Sunni Arab insurgents use mosques to store arms or fire at troops.

Tuesday's suicide truck bombing was the latest in a series of attacks since Bush and al-Maliki announced more than a month ago that they would launch the security crackdown.

Witnesses said the suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden truck into cars parked on a street as people were entering a Trade Ministry office that administers ration cards for the area.

The office and warehouses storing sugar and other rationed foodstuffs are next to the private College of Economic Sciences, but it was closed for midterm so no students were among the casualties, police said.

In other violence, the U.S. military announced that an American soldier died in combat Sunday in volatile Anbar province, west of Baghdad, raising to 42 the number of American personnel killed this month.

Iraqi police reported finding 28 bullet-riddled bodies showing signs of torture, apparent victims of sectarian death squads. Most of the bodies turned up in Baghdad.

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AP writer Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.

A joint U.S.-Iraqi force headed into the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora — a longtime Sunni militant area — on the second day of the operation, according to Iraqi officials. U.S. troops searched three Shiite areas on Wednesday, meeting little resistance as they searched house-to-house.

The Interior Ministry also said U.S. and Iraqi forces were sweeping through four main districts of the capital, including Sunni and Shiite areas, at about 7 a.m., seizing various weapons and ammunitions.

In southern Iraq, security forces closed two border points with Iran at al-Sheeb and Shalamshen — blocking the gates with large metal containers — and expanded coastal patrols to monitor maritime traffic into southern Iraq, a statement said. Authorities also set up checkpoints around Basra and were targeting the most dangerous areas in the city, Iraq's second-largest 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.

The British military said the operation would last for 72 hours.

The commander of the Baghdad security crackdown, Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar, also has said Iraq will close its borders with Syria.

Iraqi army Brig. Qassim Moussawi, Qanbar's spokesman, said a joint U.S.-Iraqi force had moved into the southern neighborhood of Dora. The U.S. military said it could not comment on any ongoing operations.

Iraqi and security forces also intensified their presence elsewhere in eastern Baghdad and other areas of the capital, with vehicles and motorcycles subjected to comprehensive searches at checkpoints.

In western Baghdad, joint Iraqi and American patrols roamed the streets and stepped up searches but they showed no signs of sealing off neighborhoods in the areas, witnesses said.

Some Iraqis were optimistic about the plan, while others complained about the inconveniences imposed as traffic jams slowed movement in the capital.

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the G-man said:
U.S., Iraqi Forces Launch Anti-Insurgent Offensive

Some Iraqis were optimistic about the plan, while others complained about the inconveniences imposed as traffic jams slowed movement in the capital.

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