Sadr didn't cut of Berg's head, that was Zarqawi. They may all be eeeeevil mooooslims but you should try to keep them distinct, anyway.
Some of Ayatollah Sistani's followers are accusing Sadr and Zarqawi of being in league against the Americans. I don't thing they are confused over the identity issue. From the Belmont blog:
...the US appears to have forged at least a tactical alliance with Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to reduce Moqtada al-Sadr. Recently, one of Sistani's virtually accused Sadr of being a tool of the predominantly Sunni Al-Qaeda. According to AFP press:
Sistani follower and influential moderate cleric Sadreddin al-Kubbanji convened a meeting of Najaf's tribal elders and repeated his earlier calls for the militia of firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr to leave the city. Speaking to an emotional crowd of Sistani supporters, Kubbanji called for a demonstration on Friday, the Muslim holy day, to protest "chaos, lies and occupation" and warned of a "treacherous plot being hatched in the name of fighting the US-led occupation."
In a veiled criticism of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia, which has taken over the area around the city's holiest shrine, Kubbanji accused "outside elements" of stoking the insurgency in order to drag the Americans into the heart of the sensitive Shiite city. ... Kubbanji said loyalists of jailed former president Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and Wahabis, radical Sunni Muslims such as followers of Al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), were behind the conspiracy.
Sisatani has stood idly by as US troops have rounded up Sadr's forces in the environs of the Najaf. The US forces, taking care to avoid the holy places proper, have recently chased the Madhi Army through the necropolis surrounding the town.
A series of loud explosions rocked the southern edge of the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Najaf from about 11:00 am (0700 GMT) on Friday, hours after fighting broke out between US troops and militiamen in the city's vast cemetery. ... The newly appointed governor Adnan al-Zorfi told AFP late Thursday that a "US entry into the centre of Najaf may be imminent," saying that a lot of those around Sadr were "simple men who did not fathom the military might of the United States." "Nobody can set conditions on the Americans," he said, urging Sadr to disband his militia "immediately" and promising that the matter of legal proceedings against him in connection with the murder of a rival cleric last year "could be resolved in Baghdad."
Whether the alliance with Sistani survives Sadr's downfall remains to be seen. But the developments on the two fronts are related. The man coordinating the twin threats by Teheran and Damascus may be Abu Musab Zarqawi. An article by the New York Post suggests he is acting the role of their field coordinator. Zarqawi was reputed to be hiding in Falluja at around the time of the attack on the four Blackwater contractors, and the Shi'ite Kubbanji's accusation that Sadr was treated with Al Qaeda may be more than rhetorical.
May 13, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - Jordanian terror master Abu Musab Zarqawi has eluded a massive U.S. military campaign to bring him to justice with help of extensive network of Middle East connections, including rogue elements of the Syrian and Iranian governments, The Post has learned. U.S. military and intelligence officials said last night that Zarqawi, the man who decapitated American contractor Nick Berg and had the horrifying act videotaped earlier this week, has managed to dodge several secret operations by the CIA and U.S. Special Forces over the past year.
Intelligence reports indicate that Zarqawi has also spent time in Iran and Syria since the fall of Saddam as part of a secret arrangement with rogue elements of security services in both of those countries. "Iran and Syria are giving him cover," said a U.S. official with access to sensitive intelligence reports on the situation. "He is taking advantage of the infrastructure that is allowing the movement of money, arms and fighters into Iraq from those countries."
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