Radical leader "flees to Iran"

February 14, 2007

The American military is claiming the radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has left Iraq and is in Iran. Senior officers say the cleric departed to avoid an offensive against militants. But four of Sadr's aides say he was still in Iraq and keeping a low profile in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf. Iran's IRNA news agency has also quoted an official who denied Sadr had arrived in the Islamic Republic.