Cleric Sadr 'in Iran' Ahead of Iraq Crackdown

The radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is said to have fled Iraq and sought shelter in Iran ahead of a US crackdown aimed at ending the violence in the country.

Mr Sadr and his senior Mahdi army commanders left Baghdad two weeks ago after the prime minister, Nouri al Maliki, said he could not guarantee their safety, a senior Iraqi official said. The cleric is thought to be in Tehran, where he has family.

Washington believes the Mahdi army is the biggest threat to Iraq's security and has urged Mr Maliki to disarm it, although Mr Sadr is one of the prime minister's closest political allies.

Iraqi authorities announced last night that the country is to close its land borders with Syria and Iran and extend the night-time curfew in Baghdad as part of the much-heralded security plan to stop insurgents in the capital and the volatile Anbar province to the west.

The fresh measures were outlined on state television by Lieutenant General Abboud Qanbar, the Iraqi commander of the US-backed Baghdad security offensive. He said the porous borders with Iraq's neighbours would be closed for 72 hours. Baghdad's airport would not be affected, said Gen Qanbar, who said he was speaking on behalf of Mr Maliki. The general also announced a three-hour extension to the night ban on vehicles in the capital, bringing the cut-off point forward to 8pm.

The news comes amid a wave of devastating bomb attacks in the capital which seem aimed at making a mockery of the joint security drive. On Monday bombings in the central market district in Baghdad killed at least 80 people. Yesterday's violence included a suicide truck bomber who blew himself up near a college and a government ration office in a mainly Shia area, killing at least 15 people.

This week, officials in Iraq's Shia-led government renewed accusations that Syria was allowing Sunni militants to cross into Iraq and attack mainly Shia civilian targets. The US military in Iraq meanwhile launched a publicity blitz, charging "the highest levels" of the authorities in Iran with supplying Shia militants in Iraq with sophisticated roadside bombs. Damascus and Tehran reject such claims.

According to the plan for the capital, which Iraqi officials said was being steadily kicked into gear, mixed units of American and Iraqi forces will be deployed throughout nine Baghdad districts. So far, 10 so-called Joint Security Stations have been established to house those units. Other main planks of the plan would be announced in the future as it is rolled out, the officials said. Gen Qanbar gave further clues last night, saying that a special criminal court would hold emergency hearings to rule under the country's anti-terrorism law on cases such as murder, theft, rape, kidnapping, damaging public property or the possession and transfer of arms and ammunition.