Sadr's supporters carry his portrait and shout slogans during a protest… (Shehab Ahmed, EPA)
November 25, 2010|By Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times Reporting from Baghdad — Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada Sadr, whose feared militia was crushed by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki two years ago, has leveraged support for his former enemy's government into renewed influence over the country's security forces, governors' offices and even its prisons.
In recent months, Maliki's government has freed hundreds of controversial members of the Shiite Muslim cleric's Mahdi Army and handed security positions to veteran commanders of the militia, which was blamed for some of the most disturbing violence in the country's civil war and insurgency against U.S. forces.
The Mahdi Army has also in effect seized control of cellblocks at one of Iraq's largest detention facilities, Taji prison. Within months of the U.S. hand-over of the prison in March, Mahdi Army detainees were giving orders to guards who were either loyal to or intimidated by them, Iraqi and U.S. officials say.
It marks a remarkable return to prominence for Sadr, an Iranian-backed Shiite cleric who stunned his followers in September when he delivered pivotal parliamentary votes to Maliki that helped him stay in power.
Senior Sadr supporters are being brought into the Interior Ministry at high-level positions, according to Mahdi Army members and Iraqi officers. One Sadr commander who is being given the rank of brigadier general said he knew of 50 others who were being recruited for officers' positions.
The group has secured political gains also. Last week, the Sadr camp won the deputy speaker position in parliament, defeating Maliki's candidate, and is said to be vying for the post of deputy prime minister too.
The Sadr movement's prominence may make it harder for the United States to wield its waning influence in Iraq, including securing an agreement allowing it to keep forces in Iraq after the end of 2001, when the last U.S. troops are scheduled to leave.
FOR THE RECORD: Iraqi cleric: An article in the Nov. 26 Section A about the rising influence of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada Sadr said the last U.S. troops are scheduled to leave Iraq at the end of 2001. It should have said 2011. —
Through the deputy speaker's post, the Sadr camp could shape, if not derail, any parliamentary debate on keeping the U.S. troops in Iraq after next year.
