BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has returned to Iraq after a nearly three-year absence.
Mohammed al-Kaabi, a Sadrist official in Baghdad, said al-Sadr was in the city of Najaf at his family home.
An official with Prime Minister Nour al-Maliki’s office confirmed a plane carrying al-Sadr flew into the southern city earlier Wednesday afternoon. He did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation.
It was not immediately clear how long al-Sadr would stay in Iraq.
Al-Sadr has not been seen in Iraq since 2007. He left the country and has been living in Iran. His forces have presented some of the main opposition to the U.S. since the 2003 invasion.
