Iraq cleric Sadr is in Iran -- US military

BAGHDAD, Feb 14 (Reuters) ''All indications'' suggest that radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has left Iraq and is in neighbouring Iran, US military spokesman Major-General William Caldwell said today.

''All indications are in fact that he is in Iran and he left last month,'' Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad. Earlier, four of Sadr's aides said he was still in Iraq and keeping a low profile in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf.

''We are tracking Moqtada al-Sadr very closely,'' Caldwell said.

Unidentified U.S. officials in Washington had suggested he had left the country to escape a crackdown in Baghdad by US and Iraqi forces.

Reuters KD DB182