Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji, a spokesman for Sadr, was among at least three people arrested by US and Iraqi troops in a midnight raid on Sadr City, a stronghold of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia in northeast Baghdad where US forces rarely venture.
Sadr's movement is a member of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shiite bloc in the government, but Maliki has been criticised by Washington and leaders of the once-dominant Sunni Arab minority for failing to disarm his Mehdi Army.
Abdul Mahdi Mtiri, a member of the Sadrists' political committee, said Iraqi officials had promised Darraji would be released. “We don't know how serious this promise is because so far he has not been released,” Mtiri said.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, who said yesterday the operation had Maliki's full backing, told Iraqiya state television he did not expect Darraji to be released today.
“The matter is not in the hands of the Iraqi government. The Americans arrested him and they're investigating him and when they're finished they will release him,” said Dabbagh.
Dealing with Sadr and the Mehdi Army militia is a burning issue for US forces and Maliki as they prepare what many see as a last-ditch effort to curb the sectarian violence that is pushing Iraq towards civil war.
Sadr, a young populist cleric, enjoys a mass following in Iraq and some backing from Shi'ite Iran.
“We know the truth behind this arrest is the Americans want to target the Sadrists and they want to draw the Sadrists into a confrontation with the American troops,” Mtiri said.
Both Shiite militias and Sunni insurgent groups are blamed for thousands of killings in the past year. The UN says more than 34,000 civilians were killed in 2006. Dozens of people are found tortured and shot in Baghdad every day.
Dabbagh said yesterday Darraji's arrest was “not against the Sadrists” as a political movement, but motivated by security concerns about Darraji. The US military did not confirm he was among those arrested.
After criticism from Washington, Maliki has announced that the coming crackdown in Baghdad, backed by most of the 21,500 American reinforcements being sent by President George W. Bush, will tackle Shi'ite militias as well as Sunni insurgents.
The mayor of Sadr City, Rahim al-Darraji, said there were no armed groups in the area except for official government forces.
“We declare our commitment to the security plan, along with all the political groups in the area and also the non-governmental organisations and all the heads of the tribes,” he said in a statement.
In a raid in south Baghdad today, around 100 Iraqi police commandos backed by six US helicopters killed 15 suspected Sunni Arab insurgents Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said.
They also arrested five men who Khalaf said were senior members of the Omar Brigade, which was formed by the slain leader of the Sunni al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
In Washington, Bush's plan to send more troops faces opposition from the Democrats, newly empowered in Congress, who are pushing for a phased withdrawal from Iraq.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Bush yesterday of playing politics with soldiers' lives.
“The president knows that, because the troops are in harm's way, that we won't cut off the resources,” Pelosi, head of the Democratic-led House, told ABC television in the US. “That's why he's moving so quickly to put them in harm's way.”
The US military announced three more combat deaths today. More than 3,000 US soldiers have died in Iraq. |
