Nowadays, he hides out at the home of an old friend, sleeping on the floor of his living room with his clothes stuffed in a plastic bag. He keeps a pistol tucked in the back of his trousers. His wife and children are staying with relatives. He has no money to rent a home for them.
He is hoping to evade authorities in Najaf, where a turban and clerical robes could conceal his identity. He says the authorities have his name but do not know what he looks like.
Still, Abu Ali refuses to acknowledge the militia's defeat in Sadr City. No army, he said, can prevail over opponents who risk their lives out of loyalty and for their faith. |
| This piece almost belongs in Opinion as it is a warm-n-fuzzy hagiography of a man "caught in circumstances beyond his control". I am quite amused by the picture at the link of Tater's Tyros looking all fearsome and fierce. Circa 2005. Ima guessing the 2008 pictures don't tell quite the same story. |
Abu Ali has had enough of war. Nothing, he insists, can change his mind. Four years ago, the father of five swapped his clerical robes for the black pants and shirts of Muqtada al-Sadr's feared Mahdi Army. Now at 37 and eager to get on with his life, Abu Ali is headed back to the holy city of Najaf to resume his clerical studies.
"I have paid my dues," he said in an interview last week at a hiding place in Baghdad's Sadr City. "It is time to start looking after myself and my family."
But Abu Ali, who gave his nickname because of fears for his family's safety, must remain incognito. As a senior Mahdi Army commander, he is on the Iraqi government's wanted list.
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