Iraq's firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr has acknowledged splits within his movement as he explained the reasons for his long absence from the public eye, in a statement released Friday. Sadr, who last month extended the ceasefire of his Mahdi Army militia, said in the statement bearing his personal seal and released in Najaf that his movement was witnessing splits as some leaders had broken away. “Many of my close companions have departed for worldly reasons, some of them want to be independent,” Sadr said. “The fact that a number of people did not return to their houza (religious school) and the fact that many are meddling in political lives while we thought they were loyal has made me isolate myself” from them. In the past year a number of senior leaders from the Mahdi militia have allegedly broken away from the main group. The US military claims many of these leaders are running their own independent groups and carrying out sectarian attacks against the Sunnis. Sadr has not been seen during Friday prayers for several months and rumors are he is in Iran studying theology. On Feb. 22, he extended the ceasefire of his militia by another six months. The decision to keep the militia off the streets was welcomed by the US military, which once saw the Mahdi Army as the greatest threat to the future of Iraq but now hopes Sadr can be a stabilizing influence. Sadr first ordered a six-month freeze on the activities of his militia in late August after allegations that his fighters had been involved in bloody clashes with security forces in Karbala. __
