Region | Iraq
Al Sadr meets top Shiite Al Sistani
Radical Shiite cleric and militia leader Moqtada Al Sadr met the reclusive spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiite majority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, on Sunday, aides to Al Sadr said.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:00 January 8, 2007
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Najaf, Iraq: Radical Shiite cleric and militia leader Moqtada Al Sadr met the reclusive spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiite majority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, on Sunday, aides to Al Sadr said.
The talks at Sistani's residence in the holy city of Najaf are part of delicate power relationships among the Islamist leaders of Iraq's now dominant Shiite majority, all of whom acknowledge Sistani's role as patron of their movement.
An aide to Sadr, Issam Al Moussawi, said the meeting was "cordial" and touched on "the security and political situation".
Al Sadr's political bloc is part of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki's national unity government but has been boycotting cabinet and parliament for the past month in protest at Al Maliki's renewal of the UN mandate for the US forces.
Al Sadr's Mehdi Army militia is blamed by US and some Iraqi officials for some of the worst sectarian violence afflicting Baghdad and other parts of the country, although Al Sadr himself has disowned groups carrying out death squad killings.
Maliki announced on Saturday a major crackdown in Baghdad on armed groups "regardless of sect", suggesting he may be ready to move against some Mehdi Army groups after months of resisting pressure from Washington and minority Sunni leaders to do so.
Al Sistani is the sponsor of the United Alliance bloc to which Sadr, Maliki and the other main Shiite political leaders belong. He has urged Shiites not to employ violence, although the rise in sectarian bloodshed over the past year has highlighted the limits of his authority.
Meanwhile, police found the bodies of 17 people, many tortured and with gunshot wounds, in different parts of Baghdad on Sunday, an interior ministry source said.
Police also found four bodies, including one that had been decapitated, in Suwayra, about 45 km south of Baghdad, the source said.
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