BAGHDAD, Feb 14: US defence officials said on Wednesday that their Iraqi nemesis, the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, had likely fled for Iran ahead of a planned military crackdown on sectarian violence.

But the anti-US firebrand’s supporters dismissed the comments by a senior military spokesman, insisting that Sadr backed the US-Iraqi security plan for Baghdad and that they would disarm their militia once order is restored.

Major General William Caldwell, spokesman for coalition forces in Iraq, told media in Baghdad, “Yes, our reporting does indicate that he has left Iraq and it appears he is in Iran.” “We obviously track Moqtada al-Sadr very closely but the reason why he is not in Iraq is not something I can discuss.” The Pentagon says Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia is the most dangerous single faction in the vicious sectarian war gripping Iraq, and accuses rogue elements of the force of killing hundreds of Sunni civilians.

Another military spokesman had said earlier that the army believed US media reports which said Sadr had been driven overland to Tehran two or three weeks ago were accurate.

In Tehran, the IRNA quoted an unnamed official as denying that Sadr had entered the country. —AFP