The majority of the iraquis are shiites - and actually the in Iran born Ajatollah Sistani is their leader.
If Sistani survives until the elections in Iraq he will become the most votes of the (shiite) Iraquis.
The cleric Sadr on the other hand is a member of an old iraqui shiite dynasty which produced many famous ajatollahs who were highly respected by the iraqui shiites during the history in Iraq.
(Have you never asked yourself why one part of Bagdad is named "Sadr-City" ?)
He wants to become the leader of the shiites - and for this he cant sit and wait for the election or that the old Sistani possibly dies of natural death. So he plays his game in Nedjaf.
There were two other importat shiite ajatollahs - both, Ajatollah Chorei and Ajatollah Hakim wanted to cooperate with the US-occupation forces. And both were assassinated by shiite fanatics - and there are many hints that Sadr was behind these assasinations.
There were also attempts to assassinate Ajatollah Sistani, but Sistani is well protected by his own militia, the Badr-brigade, which were trained in Iran and sent to Iraq after the fall of Saddam to protect Sistani.
The Badr militia outnumbers the Sadr militia, but these are young men who are religious fanatics.
So maybe Sadr hopes that if the most holiest city of the shiites is under attack of heretics he could get control over them.
The importance of Nedjaf and Kerbala for shiites shouldnt be underestimated:
For the shiite muslims Nedjaf and Kerbala are holy cities and much more important than for example Mekka or Jerusalem.
In the past one of the most holiest people for the Shiites, Imam Husein, died in a battle against the (per shiite definition) sunnite heretics. He was badly outnumbered and there was no doubt that he and his small army would be killed in the battle - but he went into this battle and died along with all his people - becoming a martyr of shiite islam and a symbol of those who sacrifice themself in battle against heretics.
And this is the danger in the situation now: Sadr must be captured alive and shown as a prisoner in TV and press - then he will loose all his power in the shiite population at once.
If he manages to get killed in the holy city of the shiites with an outnumbered army against christian and sunnite heretics he will become a martyr and the situation could get totally out of control.
And if the US-troops will stop their attacks instead of getting or killing Sadr he will also gain much power and maybe try again to get Sistani assassinated to become the religious leader of the iraqui shiites.
So its quite interesting to follow the events in Iraq and the possible consequences.
