Sadar Moves To Distance Him Self From Mehdi Army

Iraq's radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has announced that his Mehdi Army will be suspended for six months, but it is still too early to know the full significance of his statement.
To some extent it may be merely a tactic aimed at distancing himself from the recent violence in Karbala.

It is certainly a tactic he has used before to distance himself from some of the worst excesses of the Mehdi Army.

But it is a puzzling and potentially risky move by the young Shia leader.