Where's Sadr?

We still don't seem to know, but he seems to be getting his troops in line.

Today's New York Times has a must-read article. Damien Cave reports that when Moktada al-Sadr, "the radical Shiite cleric" found that "two of his commanders had created DVDs of their men killing Sunnis in Baghdad" along with evidence they were being funded by Iran, he immediately "stripped them of power."

Now Cave wasn't able to say whether this was because Sadr was on-board with the new security plan for Baghdad, or whether, as Cave writes, he "grasped the risk of graphic videos and ties to Tehran and wanted to stave off direct American action against him."

But whatever the case, as the Times reports:

For now, American and Iraqi officials say that Mr. Sadr seems to be cooperating with the effort to pacify Baghdad, ordering his men not to fight even as American armored vehicles roll into Mahdi strongholds in eastern Baghdad. And he seems to be cleaning house of fighters who could taint him by association with Iran or with death squad killings. The assassinations and mass kidnapping of Sunnis that are often attributed to his militia seem to have decreased.

Morever:

Mr. Sadr has [even] assisted the joint Iraqi-American campaign against parts of his militia, signaling whom to arrest and telling others to flee, said two Mahdi commanders and a Shiite politician in Baghdad. And on his own, they said, Mr. Sadr has “frozen” more than 40 commanders, including about 20 with links to Iran. ...

According to Sadr aides and Mahdi commanders, Mr. Sadr’s recent purges aim to put Iran on notice that he is in charge and independent. They said he also wanted to remind members of his militia that he would use every available tool, including Iraqi and American troops, to maintain control of the militia, the source of any political power he wields.

Is it now too hot in Iraq for Moktada al-Sadr?

According to the New York Time's sources, Sadr is in Iran. Now did he flee because things are getting too hot in Iraq? Or was this just a routine visit?

This being the Middle East, there is always a third possiblity: That this is just a publicity stunt cooked up by the Americans, as one of his aides said in an interview on Al Arabiya.

“This is an American lie that aims to get information about the whereabouts of Sadr in any way possible,” Abdul Razzaq al-Nadawi, identified as one of the cleric's top aides, was reported as saying. “Through this they can accomplish two things: the first is that either Sadr shows up on TV and announces that he is here, and in this case they can make sure that he is in Najaf, Iraq. If he doesn’t show up they will also have achieved something, by depicting Sadr as a coward who fled to Iran fearing for his life.”

In any case, now that the borders with Iran and Syria are supposedly closed, let's hope this means we won't see him back in Iraq any time soon.