BAGHDAD, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr blasted Shiite leader Ammar al-Hakim on Friday for tacitly supporting an extended stay for foreign troops in Iraq.
Hakim, the influential leader of the Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, arrived in Beirut early this week to meet with Lebanese leaders and senior Hezbollah officials.
Hakim during meetings with religious figures in Lebanon labeled the so-called resistance movement in Iraq as "just some group of killers" who "are not clear in identity," the Voices of Iraq news agency reports.
Sadr, who once led a violent insurgency against U.S. forces in Iraq with his Mehdi Army, blasted Hakim's response as "illogical and unacceptable" during a sermon during Friday prayers.
Sadr accused Hakim of making the statements because he "wants occupation forces to stay in Iraq," VOI said.
SIIC candidates in an unofficial primary for parliamentary elections scheduled for March trounced Sadr loyalists in the holy city of Karbala.
SIIC joined forces, however, with the Sadrist Movement and Sunni factions in September to form the Iraqi National Alliance, a party expected to mount a challenge to Maliki in the March elections.
Once a mainstay on the Iraqi scene, Sadr has avoided the limelight in recent months. He complained in 2009 that Iraq was not serious about its enforcement of the bilateral security agreement in Washington.
All U.S. military forces are scheduled to leave Iraq at the end of 2011.
