A new struggle is beginning in Iraq. The most important battles likely to be waged this year will be within the Shia community. They pit the US-backed Iraqi government against the supporters of the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who represents the impoverished Shia masses. 'The Shia are the majority in Iraq and the Sadrists are a majority of this majority,' a former Shia minister told me. 'They make up 30 to 40 per cent of the total Iraqi population.' The population of Iraq is 27 million: on this calculation, as many as ten million support Muqtada.

LRB 24 April 2008 | PDF Download