What is Sadr's bodycount?

One rumor about Sadr from the streets of Najaf:

Where the Mahdi army has been newly turfed out, there is little sympathy for Mr Sadr, or for his militia, many of whose corpses lie unburied to the north of the shrine, in Najaf's vast cemetery.

"They are looters, murderers and Ba'athists," a shopkeeper, Abdul Amir, said. His troubles started six months ago, he said, when an American soldier bought one of his fridges.

"A month later the Mahdi army took me to the cemetery, accused me of being an American agent, and beat me up. After that I had to appear before Moqtada's Sharia court. Dozens of people have been tortured or disappeared. Moqtada has a secret underground jail. His followers have executed at least 300 people," he claimed.

It is not a claim that can be easily verified. But what is clear is that in the battle for Najaf, civilians are dying.

I'll admit that the majority or items I post about Iraq don't reflect well upon the US government. I'm certainly not a fan of the invasion. But it's necessary to realize that some of the people we're fighting probably aren't any better than Saddam. And Sadr doesn't seem like a happy-go-lucky fellow.