Radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr returned Wednesday to Iraq for a hero's welcome in his stronghold of Najaf after nearly four years outside the country, an AFP correspondent said. "Moqtada al-Sadr has returned to his home in Najaf. He arrived about 3:00 pm (1200 GMT) with several leaders from the Sadr movement," a source in his movement said, adding Sadr was not visiting but had returned to stay.
Hundreds of supporters took to the streets of Al-Hanana neighbourhood in Najaf, the central Iraq shrine city where Sadr's home is located, to celebrate the cleric's return watched on by security forces. "I cannot express my happiness when I heard the news of Moqtada's arrival," said Mohamed Hussein, 33, a Najaf resident. "I came running to be sure that Sayyid Moqtada is in Najaf." "I couldn't believe that Sadr is in Najaf," said Ahmed Kadhim, 44, also a resident of the city. "I came to Al-Hanana to be sure of the news."
Sadr, who wore the black turban of a "sayyid," or descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, visited the shrine of Imam Ali, one of the most revered sites in Shia Islam, about 5:00 pm (1400 GMT), with a group of grey-clad bodyguards in tow. He is to meet Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shia cleric, later in the day, according to his movement. Sadr, whose forces led a fierce insurgency against US forces in the years after the 2003 American-led invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein, had left Iraq at the end of 2006, according to the source in his movement.