U.S. Downplays Concerns Over Anti-U.S. Cleric’s Return to Iraq
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The U.S. yesterday downplayed concerns that the return to Iraq of prominent anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr might spark a replay of sectarian violence or fresh attacks against U.S. interests in Iraq.
State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley called al-Sadr “the leader of an Iraqi political party that won a number of seats in the March 2010 election,” and said “his return is a matter between him and the government of Iraq.”