KUFA, May 25: Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr made a dramatic return to frontline Iraqi politics on Friday, calling for national unity and the withdrawal of US troops in his first speech in seven months.
The young Shia cleric, leader of one of Iraq's most powerful armed movements, arrived at his mosque in the central town of Kufa to the cheers of more than 1,000 supporters who showered him with sweets.
“No, no to the unjust! No, no to America! No, no to colonialism! No, no to Israel! No, no to Satan,” he declared in his address, the first since reports from US commanders and Iraqi officials that he had fled to Iran.
Word of Sadr's return spread across the country, with Shia mosques across Baghdad erupting in cheers at the start of Friday prayers.
“I want to renew our demand for the departure of the occupation,” he said, warning the Iraqi government that his supporters and allies have enough votes in parliament to block any renewal of the American military mandate.
“I say to our Sunni brothers in Iraq that we are brothers and the occupier shall not divide us. They are welcome and we are ready to cooperate with them in all fields.
This is my hand I stretch towards them.” Sadr had not been seen at his mosque since last October, and in January US and Iraqi officials said he had gone to Iran ahead of a massive security operation aimed at quelling sectarian violence.
“Now that he's back from four months in Iran, we hope he'll play a useful and positive role in the development of Iraq,” said White House national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe, reacting to news of the speech.
Sadr's supporters always insisted that he had stayed in Kufa, a suburb of the pilgrimage city of Najaf 140 kilometres (90 miles) south of Baghdad.
During his absence, Sadr loyalists quit Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government and now claim to have recruited 148 members of Iraq's 275-member parliament to support a law demanding the expulsion of US forces.
Sadr's Mahdi Army militia has also clashed with Iraqi and US security forces, who have carried out raids to round up death squad leaders and arms smugglers connected to the large and loosely organised movement.
On Friday, Sadr blamed clashes between the Mahdi Army and Iraqi forces on the “occupier” and called on his supporters to refrain from fighting the Iraqi army and police, suggesting that they rely on peaceful protests instead.
But just hours after Sadr's reappearance, the Mahdi Army's commander in the southern city of Basra was shot dead while resisting arrest by Iraqi special forces working with British troops, a British military spokesman said.
Despite such incidents, Sadr's core movement in Baghdad has by and large maintained a ceasefire since the security operation began.
His followers have also tacitly accepted a joint US and Iraqi security station on the edge of Sadr City, the east Baghdad slum that is the main bastion of Sadr's supporters.
He has also reached out to Sunnis, with his supporters in Sadr City welcoming a delegation of Sunni tribal sheikhs earlier in the week and vowing to work together for national unity.
