More and potentially huge evidence: Anbar Salvation Front meets with Sadrist leaders in Sadr City.

The best evidence yet that Sadr is seeking Sunni allies and move the Sadr movement away from out-and-out Shia sectarianism and towards a more encompassing Iraqi nationalism.

In an unprecedented step, a top leader of the pro-US tribal alliance in Anbar Province traveled to Sadr City Tuesday to meet with leaders of the Sadrist current.


Sheikh Hamid al-Hayis, who leads the armed wing of the US-backed movement known as the Anbar Awakening, or the Anbar Salvation Council, held a rare meeting with Sadrist leaders in Baghdad’s Sadr City, the bastion of support for the young cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and stronghold of the Mahdi Army.

“This meeting is a message to Iraqi politicians to get rid of their differences and to seek real reconciliation,” Hayis said, according to the AFP.

“We are trying to pressure (the government) to make political changes for the sake of the Iraqi people who are drowning in the blood of their sons,” Hayis added.

“This visit shows that Iraqi tribes are standing side by side and they are the nail in the coffin of the abhorrent sectarianism which has split our country,” said Shi'a Sheikh Malik Sewadi al-Mohammedawi, whom AFP identifies as the head of one of Sadr City’s most influential tribes.

Mohammedawi blamed the country’s sectarian strife on “occupation forces and foreign takfiris,” using a common term for Sunni extremists, derived from the practice of takfir, or branding fellow Muslims as unbelievers.
The Sunni tribal alliance known as the Anbar Awakening or Anbar Salvation Front cooperates closely with US forces in its operations in the western province.

The Sadrist current and the Anbar Salvation Front have very different relationships to the Maliki government and the US occupation forces. The Sadrists have repeatedly clashed with US forces, and call for withdrawal of foreign armies from Iraq, while the Anbar Front accepts aid and training from the US and coordinates closely with it in its operations.

However, the two groups share similar interests in building their political image on the Iraqi stage nationalists with an agenda that can include all Iraqis. The Anbar group plands to stand in upcoming elections, while the Sadrists are hoping to shed the baggage of having ushered the Maliki government into power, as well as the sectarian reputation of the Mahdi Army ...