Moqtada al-Sadr has not been seen in public for almost a year

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3816861.ece

April 26, 2008

Do not fight Iraqi forces, Hojetoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr tells followersDeborah Haynes in Baghdad

The religious leader of Iraq’s biggest Shia militia ordered his followers yesterday to stop fighting Iraqi security forces, explaining that an earlier threat of all-out war had been directed at US and British troops alone.

“I call upon my brothers in the army, police and al-Mahdi Army to stop the bloodshed,” Hojetoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, the influential cleric, said in a statement read out on his behalf at a Baghdad mosque during Friday prayers. “When we threatened an open war, it was meant against the occupation and not against our people. There will be no war between Sadrists and Iraqi brothers from any groups.”

The black-turbaned cleric, who has not been seen in public for almost a year and is believed to be studying in Iran, also urged the Iraqi security forces to distance themselves from US and British troops.

His comments came as US and Iraqi forces pushed on with operations to combat rogue elements of al-Mahdi Army and other armed gangs in the Shia stronghold of Sadr City in east Baghdad.