WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr left Iraq for Iran two to three weeks ago, U.S. officials said.
Senior Bush administration officials told reporters on Tuesday that Sadr, the firebrand leader of the Iranian-supported and Shiite Mahdi Army, traveled to Tehran by car. They said Sadr he left Iraq when thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops began moving into Baghdad to target militias and insurgents in the city and its environs, the Voice of America reported.
U.S. officials said Sadr might have left Iraq, in part, because of the possibly fractious nature of relations between his Madhi Army and his political bloc, which currently controls 30 seats in the Iraqi Parliament. They also said that he likely went to Iran to avoid being seized or killed during the recent U.S. surge of troops to secure Baghdad.
The Bush administration has accused Iran of supplying weapons to insurgents in Iraq and has called for a crackdown against Iranian agents found to be aiding anti-U.S. operations inside Iraq. U.S. forces have detained a number of Iranian officials following recent raids.
The report of Sadr's presence in Iran could not be independently verified, VOA reported.
