New Delhi: The US military has confirmed that radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is in Iran.
US and Iraqi officials have two different versions about the whereabouts of Muqtada.
While the US claims al-Sadr has fled to Iran, Sadr's aides say he was still keeping a low profile in Iraq.
It was not immediately clear whether al-Sadr's absence will lead to divisions among his loyalists, which include the Mahdi Army militia that has close ties to Iran.
In Iran, there was no word from the government or media on al-Sadr's whereabouts.
Al-Sadr's militia is widely believed to receive Iranian money and weapons, but his relations with Tehran are not as close as are those of some Kurdish and Shiite parties allied with the Americans.
The brother of the cleric regarded as al-Sadr's spiritual mentor, Grand Ayatollah Kazem al-Hosseini al-Haeri, said he did not know if the Iraqi leader had crossed the border.
According to Washington, Sadr's Mehdi Army is the biggest threat to Iraq's security and has urged Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to disarm it.
But Sadr's party holds a quarter of the parliamentary seats in the ruling Shi'ite Alliance in Iraq.
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