Muqtada al-Sadr
The first was the rise of a conservative Shiite cleric called Muqtada al-Sadr and his militia, the Mahdi Army, in the south of the country. Muqtada al-Sadr also has great influence in the Sadr City section of Baghdad (Sadr City, which was Saddam City, was renamed after the invasion, in honor of Sadr's father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr). With the fall of Saddam Hussein, Muqtada al-Sadr emerged as a Shia leader by rejecting the US-led occupation of Iraq. Al-Sadr created the Mahdi Army in June 2003.