26 Facts About Muqtada al-Sadr

Muqtada al-Sadr is an Iraqi Shia Muslim cleric, politician and militia leader.

Muqtada al-Sadr inherited the leadership of the Sadrist Movement from his father, and founded the now dissolved Mahdi Army militia in 2003 that resisted the American occupation of Iraq.

Muqtada al-Sadr founded the Promised Day Brigade insurgent group after the dissolution of the Mahdi Army; both were backed by Iran.

Muqtada al-Sadr belongs to the prominent al-Sadr family that hails from Jabal Amel in Lebanon, before later settling in Najaf.

Muqtada al-Sadr is often styled with the honorific title Sayyid.

Muqtada al-Sadr is the fourth son of a famous Iraqi Shia cleric, the late Grand Ayatollah Muhammad al-Sadr.

Muqtada al-Sadr is the son-in-law of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr.

Muqtada al-Sadr is a citizen of Iraq; his great-grandfather is Ismail as-Sadr.

Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, Muqtada al-Sadr's father, was a respected figure throughout the Shi'a Islamic world.

Muqtada al-Sadr was murdered, along with two of his sons, allegedly by the government of Saddam Hussein.

Muqtada al-Sadr's father-in-law was executed by the Iraqi authorities in 1980.

Muqtada al-Sadr gained popularity in Iraq following the toppling of the Saddam government by the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.

Muqtada al-Sadr is widely suspected of ordering numerous assassinations against high-ranking Shi'ite clergy, including a 2003 bombing of the house of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Saeed al-Hakim, and the 10 April 2003 murder of Grand Ayatollah Abdul-Majid al-Khoei at a mosque in Najaf.

On 13 October 2003, fighting broke out in Karbala, when Muqtada al-Sadr's men attacked supporters of moderate Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani near the Imam Hussein shrine.

Shortly after the US-led coalition ousted Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath regime, Muqtada al-Sadr voiced opposition to the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Muqtada al-Sadr subsequently stated that he had more legitimacy than the Coalition-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

In May 2003, Muqtada al-Sadr issued a fatwa that became known as the al-Hawasim fatwa.

Paul Bremer, then the US administrator in Iraq, declared on 5 April 2004 that Muqtada al-Sadr was an outlaw and that uprisings by his followers would not be tolerated.

That day, Muqtada al-Sadr called for a jihad against American forces.

On 17 April 2007, several ministers loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr left the Iraqi government.

Sadr reiterated his condemnation of the United States' occupation of Iraq and demanded the withdrawal of foreign forces, Muqtada al-Sadr's speech contained calls for unity between Sunni and Shi'a.

In June 2007, Muqtada al-Sadr vowed to go ahead with a planned march to the devastated Askariyya shrine in central Iraq, Muqtada al-Sadr said the march was aimed at bringing Shi'is and Sunnis closer together and breaking down the barriers imposed by the Americans and Sunni religious extremists.

On 1 May 2009, Muqtada al-Sadr paid a surprise visit to Ankara where, in his first public appearance for two years, he met with Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks that focused on the "political process" and requested Turkey play a greater role in establishing stability in the Middle East.

However, whereas during the war Muqtada al-Sadr was known for advocating violence, in 2012 he began to present himself as a proponent of moderation and tolerance and called for peace.

Muqtada al-Sadr called the Green Zone "a bastion of support for corruption".

Muqtada al-Sadr rejected US interference in the formation of the new Iraqi government, saying: "The US is an invader country; we do not allow it to interfere" in Iraqi affairs.