Further splits within the Jaish al Mahdi

I've been following for the last nine months the splits, schisms, and competing elements within the Mahdi Army. Moqtada al Sadr was appearing to be losing control of some of the more violent and thuggish elements, hence the ceasefire. Yesterday he's expelled two commanders for being corrupt and disloyal, this is after a difficult three weeks for the Sadrist militia with other splits. I personally believe this is a strong contributing factor to the big rise in violence and killings in February (20 to 33 % depending on who's figures you take). The two commanders he has expelled (Ahmad al-Sharifi and Adnan Shahmani) have apparently set up their own parties.
Either Moqtada gets his men in order, or there will be total chaos again. It sounds a strange thing to say but Moqtada should be supported in trying to bring his worst elements to heal. (Please do not confuse this with an endorsement of a really vicious, unpleasant man, responsible for the initial escalation in the sectarian battle for Baghdad in late 03 early 04).

Most of the information contained in this post can be found at Al-Hayat (Arabic)