Radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr has called on his supporters to cease "resistance operations" in the cities and villages from which U.S. forces have withdrawn.
Two years earlier, Al-Sadr called on his militia [Jaysh Al-Mahdi, or Mahdi Army] to terminate their operations against the U.S. army, and went to Iran to pursue higher religious training.
[Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki has been courting the Sadrists as potential partners in the general elections.]
Source: Al-Zaman, Iraq, July 2, 2009
