Moqtada Tateral-Sadr
... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah...
sharply criticized an offshoot of his movement on Sunday, accusing them of killing Iraqi soldiers and coppers and being beholden to neighboring Iran.
It is the first time Sadr, who is himself judged by critics as close to Tehran, has publicly stated that Asaib Ahel al-Haq, or the League of the Righteous, is supported by the Islamic Theocratic
Republic.
The holy man said that the Shiite militia, which is blamed for the killing of U.S. troops, had only recently decided to lay down their arms because a political standoff in Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
has raised the specter of early elections. The group was also behind the kidnap of a British IT consultant and his four bodyguards.
"I have asked the people who are in charge of them in the Islamic Theocratic
Republicto change the name of Asaib, and change their dual leadership," Sadr said in a written response to a letter from a follower, published by his office on Sunday. "But these people refused."
Washington has long blamed Iran for training and equipping Shiite militias, including Asaib Ahel al-Haq, that have carried out attacks against US and Iraqi soldiers, charges Tehran denies.
Sadr did not specify what he meant by the group's "dual leadership" but Asaib Ahel al-Haq is jointly led by the brothers Qais and Laith al-Khazali.
The holy man long ran his own feared Mahdi Army militia, and while that has been deactivated as a violent force, the offshoot Promised Day Brigade is seen as close to Sadr.
"They (Asaib Ahel al-Haq)
handed over their weapons to be part of the political process," Sadr said, referring to Qais al-Khazali's December 26 remarks that the group would join the political process.Sadr said those weapons were used to kill "honest people", charging the organization with killing Iraqi soldiers and coppers, as well as Saleh al-Ogayly, an MP who was killed by a booby-trapped cycle of violence in the Shiite bastion of Sadr City in Storied Baghdad in October 2008.
"Today, the opportunity of an election has come, and their intentions have become clear," Sadr said.
He was referring to political discord in Iraq between the Shiite-led government and the key Sunni-backed Iraqiya party, with several groups, including the parliamentary bloc loyal to Sadr, calling for early elections to resolve the standoff.