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Muqtada al-Sadr. |
Under pressure, the leader of the Mahdi Army fled to Iran
Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Iranian backed leader of the Jaish al-Mahdi, or Mahdi Army, left Iraq several weeks ago and is staying with ‘family’ inside Iran, according to an ABC News report. Military officials told ABC News Sadr is said to have left Iraq just prior to the deployment of U.S. forces, and feared being targeted by U.S. Air Force.
While the reports indicate Sadr is staying with family, a source in the U.S. intelligence community told us Sadr is under the protection of the Iranian government. “Sadr is currently being protected by Qods Force,” the same Iranian special forces unit that is believed to have executed U.S. soldiers in Karbala, Iraq, and has been supplying Sunni and Shia terrorists with weapons, support and agents to killed Coalition forces. Members of Qods Force are currently in U.S. custody.
Sadr’s underlings have been reported to be fleeing Iraq to Iran in January. Sadr’s departure from Iraq indcates he takes the Baghdad security plan seriously, and fears for his direct safety. U.S. and Iraqi forces battled Sadr’s militia numerous times during the late summer and fall of 2006. U.S. and Iraqi forces detained over 15 leaders of the Mahdi Army and killed 1, and detained over 600 fighters from December 2006 to January of 2007.
U.S. and Iraqi forces targeted Iranian agents in Baghdad in December 2006, and Irbil in January 2007, capturing Qods Force agents, along with plans and documentation on Iran’s support of the Iraqi death squads, al Qaeda and Ansar al-Sunnah. An Iranian ‘diplomat’ was kidnapped in Baghdad in broad daylight, while two Sadr aides were murdered. The deputy minister of Health, a Sadr underling, was arrested for “links with the death squads.” Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki approved the arrest.
Sadr has tested the winds in Iraq, and deemed it unsafe for him to stay.
19 Comments
Wow, this is great news!
Good riddance.
See http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1994458,00.html
Moqtada al-Sadr Fears for His Life
I like this story.
See Friday January 19, 2007 article in The Guardian by Mark Oliver Sadr fears for life in security crackdown
■ “Moqtada al-Sadr has moved his family to a secure location because of fears he will become the target of a security sweep of Baghdad”
Hopefully, a roster of Sadr’s militia members will be found while he is out of the country. As this dear lover of Peace slumbers, we should go about our task of sending his leadership council to see some virgins! Waiting in the shadows are the jets of Isreal. They will know what targets exist in Iran; if not, I am sure our people have the exact locations. Let’s roll this game up quickly…if the Iraqis really want a free and democratic country, now is their last hope of having Americans directly helping them achieve such. They’ve got about five months to show all of us some “true grit” or we will pull up stakes faster than they can kill a goat or don a burka!
Does this mean the Iraqi government kicked him out ? Is he going to be allowed back?
His death squads must be running thin if he has to bail on them. This can’t be good for his crew.
Now all we need is al Masri fleeing the country.
Remember this man has rivals, Shiite rivals. No one ever did figure out who killed Hakim.
I do wonder how this will go along with his “Defender of Baghdad”
I believe that terrorist organizations get too much public attention. When we take a close look we can see that in Iraq and Afghanistan we have plain old ethnic/religious conflict. Shia/Sunni thing in Iraq and Pushtun thing in Afghanistan. Terrorists are just using other people misery for their own goals, and the western media is helping them.
I live in Croatia, and my country is going to join EU and NATO soon. I am afraid, because there so many freaks, activists and traitors of all kinds in the West, and media can’t wait to put them on the front pages of newspapers. When we had war here, almost everyone, even old ladies and little kids knew who the enemy was. I am afraid that it is about to change. We have our share of idiots, too, even very big ones, but they are not so loud, and people are not interested in them, so far.
DG
And the BBC is one of the biggest perpetrators I’m afraid. While the anti war slot deserves caoverage the media needs to be taking a much more balanced approach than it often does.
This is great news for many reasons. I hope that special forces and intel are gathering more information from whatever offices and leaders he left behind.
Several issues are going on here. 1) Is Sadr tied to the Health official in any assasination attempts? Hope so! 2) Is he tied to any of the Iranians Qods forces? Email? 3) and finally tied to any of the weapons smuggling from Iran or other terrorist leaders?
Everyone pray that our guys find the goods on the thug and we can put it out in the open not just for Americans, but Iraqis.
Because if it is ever found that he has a hand in killin of Shia – well, he’s all but dead in Iraq. And I’d hope CIA, or whatever special forces we have loosed in Iraq can uncover this type of information. He’d never be allowed back in Iraq.
Thinking about it a little more. Remember it was Sadr that traveled to Damascus and met with Bashar and Ahmadinejad, plus some other leaders, including I think Hamas and Hezbollah at the time. It was around the time Syria and Iran made Defense Agreements. Sadr even said at that time he would defend Iran.
Could it be so simple and straightforward. Sadr was point man for Syrian/Iranian forces in Iraq?
Sadr is no fool other than being power hungry Sadr himself. Escaping to Iran will allow him to politicize himself in a pursecuted way just to force a heroes return another day.
What Iraq must do is expose him and his deeds in a very public manner, to share his misdeeds as an Iraqi so he is well know to Iraq as the un-common massacarist!
Prepare all that can be done for his global denouncement in a public trial form.
This can only be perceived as good news, despite new news reports denying al-Sadr has fled Iraq. Even if he is still in country, his support and influence both seem to be dwindling. I am certain all (or certainly those without a vested interest in perpetuating it) Iraqis are tiring of the violence and want to see the source eliminated as quickly as possible.
I do not think Sadr was forced from Iraq but left voluntarily. His departure is an extremely good sign and indicates that Prime Minister Maliki has made it very clear to Sadr that the PM will no longer protect him or the Mahdi Army.
As for Sadr leaving because he was afraid of a U.S. Air Force strike on him – I doubt it. Sadr was a major irritant to us in the summer of 2003 when I was in south central Iraq. On one trip to Najaf a local Iraqi told me that Sadr and his men were stockpiling arms and munitions in local mosques. The Marines, who controlled Najaf at the time, were well aware of his activities. Marine snipers had Sadr in their sights several times but were never given the approval to shoot.
Marine Commanders, anxious to turn over the south central region to the Polish Multinational Division, had no interest in dealing with the widespread unrest that would result from Sadr’s assasination and martyrdom. The MND did not have the rules of engagement to deal with such an uprising and the Marines would have had to delay their departure to handle it.
I was not privy to discussions about Sadr between Bremer and Sanchez but the result of these discussions was that no order came down to the Marines to put Sadr out of his misery.
There are consequences to inaction as well as action. If Bremer had decided to deal with Sadr in the summer of 2003, the Marines would have been in south central to deal with the consequences. Instead, Bremer waited until April 2004 to act against Sadr. He shut down Sadr’s newspaper in Baghdad and arrested one of his top aides.
The tranquil towns of Kut, Najaf, Diwaniyah and Karbala, that I had visited so many times, were assaulted by Sadr’s radicals. I had done a lot of work in those towns over five months, and some of this work was destroyed in a day. The U.S. Army had to come down into the MND sector to restore order.
Sadr leaving Iraq is very good news. May he stay in exile the rest of his life.
MG Caldwell confirmed that he left Iraq last month. Believed to be in Tehran.
Good Brief this morning, video showed some of the Iranian toys from the Sunday Brief…
Sadr’s organization is reporting that he has not left Iraq, but will not appear in public this (Muslim Holy) month. I’m not sure how to take that so we’ll see. It still keeps him out of the way while.
Bill you might want to pick up on the Presidents speech today.
The president repeated numerous times that we know that the Quds force was supplying shaped charge explosives to Iraqi insurgent groups. We do not know, however if this action by Quds was authorized at the highest levels of the Iranian government. What’s worse weather the they (Iranian government) did know or didn’t know that the Quds force was supplying these weapons to Iraqi insurgents.
That’s not an exact quote, close. He repeated it six or seven times, so pick your variation. Something he hinted at but didn’t say is that the Iranian government is very factional (especially now). The actions of Quds may in fact represent the will of one faction while others may be deeply upset about Iran’s deepening involvement. Once again I maintain that the US is not trying to escalate to a direct confrontation with Iran. The president said as much.
What I think is going on, is that they are trying to isolate the actions of the Quds force in Iraq from the Iranian government so that action can be taken against Quds. They are trying to force the Iranian government into denying official association with the Quds in Iraq. We are trying to create a catch 22 for the Iranian government. If they defend the actions of Quds it will put a spotlight onto their activities in Iraq. If they deny involvement with Quds actions that hangs Quds out to be plucked. I might add that the Iraqi government needs to clarify the diplomatic status (or lack) of any Iranians in the country. They need to nail down which Iranians do have diplomatic cover and ask the rest to leave. Likewise Iranian visitors need to be asked to leave for the next eight to ten months. Anyway, I see a systematic attempt to isolate and deal with Quds.
Good point Neo-andertal. Furthermore, I believe that some of our friends–using the term in its most liberal sense–in the region are working to bring Iran to a breaking point economically, as well. The President hinted at this in his news conference this morning when he said that we have no conflict with the people of Iran. May the people of Iran find the courage and help they need to reject the Muslim radicals that have kept them repressed for so many years.
Trackbacked by The Thunder Run – Web Reconnaissance for 02/15/2007
A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
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