Is that observation fair, that he has a narrow base among the supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr?
He is facing rivals like the followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, who is reintroducing himself as a moderate.
The rocket fire is coming from Sadr City, the Shiite enclave mostly controlled by the militia leader and cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Petraeus spoke about the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who had called a series of ceasefires against U.S. troops during 2007 and 2008.
It's in the oil-rich city of Basra, where government security forces took on the Shiite militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
But the one that is being targeted, it appears today, is that of more or less somebody who's political, the radical Shiite Moqtada al-Sadr.
They clashed with militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
There are also Shia insurgents, the Mahdi Army of Moqtada al-Sadr.
But these and other reported grievances are being vigorously contested by Iraq's minister of state for antiquities, Liwa Sumaysim, a member of Moqtada al Sada's party.
Shia, such as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition, the Islamic Supreme Council led by cleric Ammar al-Hakim and the Sadrist Movement led by radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr.
In 2007, Mr Maliki authorised a surge in US troop numbers that targeted al-Qaeda affiliated Sunni militants and led the 2008 campaign against Shia militias loyal to the radical cleric, Moqtada Sadr.
After staying out of sight for six months, Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr finally appeared in public Friday in an attempt to rein in his followers and instill order to an organization in turmoil.
That was a reference to Mr Maliki's campaign against the Mehdi Army militia in 2008, and rumours that his recent alliance with its leader, the radical young cleric Moqtada Sadr, involved the freeing of jailed Mehdi militants.
He had alienated the bulk of the Sunnis, and even factions from his own Shia community, including ministers loyal to the militant cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who along with the Kurds and others, had tried to bring the prime minister down.
BBC: Local polls pose challenge for Iraq after US withdrawal
It says that even if al-Maliki has the right intentions, he may simply not have the political or security capabilities to take the steps which had been mentioned earlier in the memo which risk alienating his narrow Sadrist political base, meaning Moqtada al-Sadr, the militia leader.
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