http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/02/18/iran.sadr/index.htmlWhere is al-Sadr? Not in Iran, official says
POSTED: 5:36 a.m. EST,
February 21, 2007 Story Highlights• Spokesman: U.S. waging "psychological" war against Iran
• Earlier Bush administration said al-Sadr in Iran; now they don't know
• Members of al-Sadr's Mehdi militia were told to leave Iraq
• Iran spokesman: If Iran attacked, West in peril
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman denied Sunday that Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Iraqi Shiite cleric who opposes the U.S. presence in Iraq, is in Iran.
"Muqtada al-Sadr is not in Iran," Mohammad Ali Hosseini said, according to the semi-official Iran Labor News Agency.
Hosseini labeled as "propaganda" U.S. suggestions to the contrary, accusing the United States of waging a "psychological" war to pressure Iran.
Last week, an Iraqi government official said al-Sadr departed Iraq for Iran a few days earlier, just as coalition forces were staging security crackdowns on insurgents.
Sami al-Askari, a member of parliament and a political adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, provided no details.
Earlier last week, Bush administration and U.S. military officials also said al-Sadr was in Iran and had been there for about two weeks. (Read the full story)