US military spokesman said that Iraqi radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has left Iraqi to neighboring Iran, although his supporters denied.

"We will acknowledge that he is not in the country and all indications are in fact that he is in Iran and he left last month," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told reporters.

"We are tracking Muqtada al-Sadr very closely," Caldwell said, stressing media reports quoted unidentified US officials as saying that Muqtada has left the country some weeks ago and is believed to be in Tehran.

The officials who spoke anonymously, said they suggested that Sadr had left to escape a crackdown in Baghdad by US and Iraqi troops.

However, Sadr's supporters dismissed the allegations that Sadr had left to Iran and insisted that he was "still inside Iraq and working normally without fear of US forces," Nassar al-Rubaie, head of Sadr's parliamentary bloc told reporters.

(Xinhua News Agency February 15, 2007)