Muqtada Al-Sadr, Anti-U.S. Cleric, Returns To Iraq

After about four years of exile in Iran, anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is back in Iraq.

Al-Sadr, as the Associated Press reminds us, "led several Shiite uprisings against American forces in Iraq" before leaving for Iran.

Now, the BBC adds, "his political movement [has] secured a deal to be part of the new government, with 39 parliamentary seats and seven ministries."

Al-Sadr is now in the city of Najaf, south of Baghdad. According to the AP, "hundreds of al-Sadr's followers were gathering at his house. Others flocked to the holy shrine of Imam Ali, revered among the country's Shiite majority, amid reports that al-Sadr had traveled to the shrine and visited his father's grave before going home."

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