Iraqi cleric lifts political boycott

Radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr today announced his followers were returning to the political fold in an apparent bid to regain legislative influence ahead of a planned security crackdown.

The Sadrists said they were lifting their nearly two-month political boycott after reaching a compromise in which a parliamentary committee would take up the group’s demands for a timetable for Iraqi forces to take over security and the withdrawal of US forces.