Mohammed al-Kaabi, a Sadrist official in Baghdad, said al-Sadr was in the city of Najaf at his family home.
An official with Prime Minister Nour al-Maliki's office confirmed a plane carrying al-Sadr flew into the southern city earlier Wednesday afternoon. He did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation.
It was not immediately clear how long al-Sadr would stay in Iraq.
Al-Sadr has not been seen in Iraq since 2007. He left the country and has been living in Iran. His forces have presented some of the main opposition to the U.S. since the 2003 invasion.
He's a piece of work. Before Christmas, Strategypage reported:
The pro-Iran Sadr party got eight of the ministries. Their leader, Moqtada al Sadr continues to hide out in Iran, partly to complete his religious studies (so he can be named an ayatollah, a senior religious rank) and partly to avoid assassination by Sunni Arab terrorists who see Sadr as a minion of the devil (in the form of Shia clergy who run Iran.) Coming home an ayatollah forces the Iraqi government to make more of an effort to protect Sadr. At the moment, many Iraqi Shia would like to see Sadr dead. Sadr is faces retribution from powerful groups in the Shia community for men Sadr had murdered. Memories are long and knives are sharp in Iraq.
Still, like the saying goes: garbage in, garbage out. Let's hope somebody takes care of Sadr. He should be tried for crimes for his multiple uprisings against the government and imprisoned or executed. But I'd settle for a horrible hot tub accident.
