Cleric who fought US returns to Iraq from exile

A fiercely anti-American Shiite cleric who heads Iraq's most feared militia has returned after nearly four years in self-imposed exile, to the jubilation of supporters and the dismay of many other Iraqis who remember the sectarian killings carried out by his dreaded death squads.

Muqtada Al-Sadr's return to Iraq on Wednesday solidified the rise of his movement and ensured he will be a powerful voice in Iraqi politics as U.S. forces leave the country. He left Iraq in 2007 somewhat as a renegade, a firebrand populist whose militiamen battled American troops and Iraqi forces. (AP)