Iran's influential former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, on Friday hailed the Shia Muslim militia of firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr as "heroic" for rising up against the US occupation in Iraq.
Rafsanjani told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran that a distinction should be drawn between Shia fighters, who have battled US-led troops across southern Iraq this week, and insurrectionist supporters of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party he described as "terrorists".
"Contrary to these terrorist groups in Iraq, there are powerful bodies which contribute to the security of that nation...among them is the Mehdi Army, made up of enthusiastic, heroic young people," he told the crowd.
But Iran's top dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, criticised the Medhi Army, which follow Sadr.
Sadr met Rafsanjani in Iran last June at a memorial service for the spiritual father of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
In remarks broadcast live on state radio, Rafsanjani also praised the Badr Corps, a Shia fighting force of several thousand nurtured in Iran.
The Corps is the fighting wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq that for many years directed its opposition to Saddam from Tehran.
But in the seminary city of Qom, Iran's main seat of religious learning, dissident cleric Montazeri dismissed Sadr's Mehdi Army.
"Although the supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr have chosen the name Mehdi Army for themselves, Imam Mehdi would never be content to initiate disunity, division and factionalism in his name," he said in comments faxed to Reuters.
Montazeri's office said the remarks were made in an interview with Time magazine.
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