Muqtada al-Sadr – An election winner in Iraq who lost control – Gudrun Harrer: Analyzes & Comments

When Muqtada al-Sadr suddenly emerged after the fall of Baghdad to US troops in April 2003, he not only looked as if he had crawled out of a dark hole, in a way he was. For years, the scion of a Shiite clerical family had to hide from Saddam Hussein’s henchmen, who had his father, brothers, uncle and aunt killed.