BASRA, Iraq, May 13 (UPI) -- With violence complicating the political vacuum in Iraq, U.S. military leaders wonder if forces loyal to a radical Shiite cleric are reforming in the south.
U.S. military forces fought with the Mehdi Army of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr since the early days of the U.S-led invasion, though the group called a cease-fire in 2008.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Vincent Brooks told The Christian Science Monitor that forces loyal to the anti-American cleric are gaining strength in the Shiite south of Iraq as violence rocks the country.
"There's evidence in the past that they're not at all reticent to intimidate and to murder their fellow Shiite citizens, so I do not exclude them," he said from Basra.
Sadrists, lawmakers loyal to the cleric, gained political influence in the wake of the cease-fire, taking 40 seats in the March 7 election for the Council of Representatives.
Brett McGurk, an Iraq expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the Monitor that there is a distinction between Sadrists and militants in the Mehdi Army.
For his part, Sadrist leader Bahaa al-Araji said there is no longer a Mehdi Army in Iraq. He warned, however, that it was possible for his loyalists to call on its fighters to response to a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq "if the need arose."
