BAGHDAD — On Oct. 18, a delegation from the local government in Anbar province went to the Shiite province of Najaf to visit cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, under a media blackout. The Shiite cleric did not issue any statement regarding the visit, while the local Anbar government merely gave a standard acknowledgment of the event.
According to two members of the Anbar provincial council interviewed by Al-Monitor, the visit was the result of a coincidence; a delegation of the local Anbar government was supposed to meet Shiite cleric Ali al-Sistani, but events during the month of Muharram (the first month of the Islamic calendar) delayed the meeting.
