Sadr's movement ventured into national politics in 2005, and he was instrumental in appointing Nuri Al-Maliki, a fellow Shiite, as prime minister in 2006. But Sadr pulled his movement out of the government in April 2007 when Maliki refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Sadr took his movement out of the ruling Shiite Alliance in September 2007. __
