Elvis confirmed to be in Najaf

U.S. Army inspecting a child's throat in Najaf

The New York Times confirmed that Moqtada al-Sadr, Iraqi cleric and leader of the Mahdi Army, is in Najaf. From the Times report:

The powerful Iraqi cleric Moktada al-Sadr surfaced in his home base of Kufa in southern Iraq today, delivering a sermon in a local mosque after what American intelligence officials called a four-month sojourn in Iran.

The cleric, addressing a large crowd amid heavy security, called for American forces to leave Iraq, but pointedly did not say how quickly those troops should leave, as he has in the past. A longer timeline would serve to give Mr. Sadr’s Mahdi Army extra time to prepare for the departure of the Americans.

Mr. Sadr called for an end to fighting between the Mahdi Army and Iraqi forces and police, asking his followers to conduct peaceful demonstrations instead. And though the Mahdi Army has been heavily involved in the nation’s brutal sectarian violence, he requested reconciliation between Shiites, Sunnis and Christians.

But as the Times went on to report:

“He has a great deal of administrative and management work to do,” said Toby Dodge, a Middle East expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. “He has to reassert control over an increasingly wayward military organization.” Mr. Dodge, who recently spent a month in Iraq, added, “Clearly, he needs to make his mind up whether his military organization is a tool of rampant sectarianism or a tool of national reconciliation.”

Well, I'm hoping that Sadr's return means that we'll soon be seeing the Madhi Army performing throat inspections instead of sectarian executions and helping to restore Iraq's infrastructure as opposed to trying to tear Iraqis apart for a change.