BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 11, 2008
Al-Sadr's Senior Aide Assassinated
Gunmen Kill Iraqi Shiite Cleric's Director Of Office At Najaf Headquarters
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Muqtada al-Sadr has his headquarters in Najaf, but the shrines in that city are dominated by a rival Shiite group and most of his followers are concentrated in Kufa. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani)
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The killing threatened to raise tensions amid a violent standoff between al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.
In a statement Friday, al-Sadr blamed the United States and the Iraqi government for the death of Riyadh al-Nouri, the director of al-Sadr's office in Najaf. Al-Sadr urges his followers to be "patient."
Al-Nouri was gunned down as he drove home after attending Friday prayers in the adjacent city of Kufa, a police officer and a local Sadrist official said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Al-Sadr has his headquarters in Najaf, but the shrines in that city are dominated by a rival Shiite group and most of his followers are concentrated in Kufa.
Al-Nouri and a top al-Sadr lieutenant, Sheik Mustafa al-Yacoubi, were detained by American forces in April 2004 in the killing a year earlier of a moderate Shiite cleric, Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Khoei, in Najaf shortly after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. An arrest warrant was issued for al-Sadr himself but never served.
That along with the closing by U.S. authorities of al-Sadr's newspaper triggered a massive uprising that engulfed Shiite areas of central and southern Iraq. Several thousand people were killed before the rebellion was finally suppressed, and the two men were released in 2005.
Al-Sadr's spokesman in Najaf, Salah al-Obeidi, said the United States bore responsibility for Friday's killing because of its continued presence in Iraq. Al-Obeidi said the cleric appealed for calm and ordered his followers "not to be dragged into others' plots."
Police said al-Nouri was driving his car alone and had passed through two of their checkpoints before heading for the residential part of the city in which he lived. The gunmen were waiting for near his home, where no security forces were present.
An overnight curfew also was announced in the southern Shiite city of Hillah.
In other developments:
Meanwhile, sporadic clashes between Iraqi security forces and militia fighters broke out for a sixth day in the Mahdi Army strongholds of Baghdad's Sadr City and the southern port city of Basra.
And a rocket apparently aimed at the U.S.-protected Green Zone also fell short, crashing into a second-floor room and blowing a hole in the wall of the Palestine Hotel in central Baghdad. Police said three people were killed and seven wounded, mainly pedestrians on the street below.
U.S. airstrikes also killed 12 more suspected militants.
An unmanned drone fired on a group of gunmen carrying grenades and mortars overnight in Sadr City, killing six of them, the U.S. military said.
Armed drones are routinely used for long air patrols over the capital. They rely on their sensors to pick up militant activity during the night, and insurgents do not have air defenses capable of shooting down the slow-moving aircraft.
And the British military said a helicopter had hit a group of gunmen in the Hayaniyah district of central Basra overnight, killing six of them.
"They were positively identified as an active mortar team," British military spokesman Maj. Tom Holloway said.
The southern port city was the scene of fierce combat when Iraqi government forces launched a weeklong offensive against Shiite militias on March 25. British forces also took part in the fighting.
But that violence has ebbed. On Friday, authorities lifted a two-week ban on vehicle movement in Baghdad's mainly Shiite Shula neighborhood. A similar ban on vehicles in Sadr City district is scheduled to be lifted on Saturday.
Violence in Iraq had declined last year and early this year following a seven-month-old cease-fire by al-Sadr, an influx of American troops and a Sunni revolt against al Qaeda in Iraq.
But the recent government crackdown on the Mahdi Army has provoked fierce retaliation, underscoring the fragility of the security gains.
Separately, the U.S. military said Friday that the pullout of the five brigades that comprised last year's buildup of U.S. forces into Iraq is continuing with the redeployment of the 4th Brigade of the First Infantry Division back to Fort Riley in Kansas. The 4th Brigade was based in southern Baghdad, a district of about 1.2 million people.
All five surge brigades are due to return home by the end of July, leaving about 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
Also Friday, a suicide car bomber struck a police checkpoint at an entrance to the Anbar province capital of Ramadi, killing three officers and wounding five others, police said.
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Add a Comment See all 35 Comments
- Al Sadr sees himself as a Freedom Fighter trying to dislodge the Evil American Occupiers trying to force their control through the Al Maliki Puppet Government.
Iraq''''s Mujahedeen Freedom Fighters if you will...
Posted by FloydZepp at 06:48 AM : Apr 12, 2008
+ report abuse
***************
nice head! tic tac? - Reply to this comment
- As al Sadr said, it was the Occupier or its "tail"-- the Maliki Regime--that killed the aide. The US is bent on triggering the uprising so that it can be crushed prior to any attack on Iran.
Sadr--who is no fool--knows this and is conserving his forces for that eventuality, knowing that the low intensity warfare will eventually make the Occupation unsustainable. Now, that Admiral Fallon and his truce have been overturned by Bush and his heel hound, Betrayus, the fight will be escalated and more provocations made. - Reply to this comment
- I would like to know where Al Sadr''s organization gets the funds and the weapons from. Iraq should not delay sweeping out this lawless street gang who is terrorizing their own country.
- Reply to this comment
- From the very beginning Iran has been engaged in a proxy war with the U.S. in Iraq, Iran has U.S. blood all over its hands. Iran''s involvement in Iraq "NOW" is just more active, even more involved than previously, but this was always the case, nothing new. Because the U.S. has been going out of its way to avoid an open conflict with Iran, trying to avoid opening up a 3rd war front, Iran has been trying to take advantage, exploiting every situation it can to hurt the U.S. in Iraq knowing the U.S. can''t really afford another war. The U.S. really doesn''t want war with Iran but may have no choice since Iran keeps forcing the issue and the lesser evil may be to confront Iran head on! The assassination of al-Sadr''s senior aide is close to home and al-Sadr could be next if he is not careful!
- Reply to this comment
- All the ********** need to be shot. that will end most of our problems. www.theoandavirus.com
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Posted by heraldtkel at 09:58 PM : Apr 11, 2008
-Your website sucks. It has no interesting content. - Reply to this comment
- All the ********** need to be shot. that will end most of our problems. www.theoandavirus.com
- Reply to this comment
- What''s the worry? There is still room in h*ll for Al Sadr. By the way Sadr spends so much time in Iran, he should be considered a foreigner in Iraq.
- Reply to this comment
- my grandma had shingles...it didnt affect her mind tho.
Posted by jamesm12341 at 01:26 PM : Apr 11, 2008
It skipped a generation and got you... - Reply to this comment
- the Iraqi war is legal
Posted by terrorislamh at 04:03 PM : Apr 11, 2008
If it was legal then why did Powell keep going back to the UN trying to justify an invasion? Why send in weapon inspectors?
Readers who need to "trust but verify" (i.e., to corroborate) for themselves that the experts'' overwhelming opinion is exactly as stated above should read a document entitled "15 January 2003." (Find it by scrolling down approximately one-fourth of the way, after you''ve clicked onto this ES website: http://www.eurolegal.org/useur/bbiraqwar.htm "The Legality Of The Iraq War" .) Why?
That document was drafted and signed by the world''s foremost international law experts -- the prestigious International Commission of International Law Jurists -- to provide ultimate proof of their authoritative opinion concerning the legal status of war against Iraq. Furthermore, this large body of eminent international law experts explicitly stated that they''d drafted their legal document in order to advise Messrs. Bush and Blair prior to the invasion: (1) that it would be blatantly illegal under international law for the Anglo-American belligerents to invade Iraq; and (2) that their joint decision as Commanders-in-Chief to commence hostilities would constitute prosecutable war crimes.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6917.htm - Reply to this comment
- Bush has balls. He did it his way.
- Reply to this comment
- GREAT! LET''S KILL ANOTHER AID.
- Reply to this comment
- US''''s support of ***.
That should be "US''s support of g*a*y*s" - Reply to this comment
- Posted by trapbreak
I still say you can hear stuff as bad Rev. Wright says at any Southern Baptist church on any given Sunday. Remember those stalwarts of jingoism Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell blamed 9/11 on the US''s support of ***.
Rasmussen polls are run by "Scott Rasmussen, an Evangelical Christian and president of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, a not-for-profit corporation with historic ties to the Methodist Church and the Wesleyan tradition." I don''t feel that they are truly representative. - Reply to this comment
- take that fat worthless fascist nazi terrorislamist pig al-sadr out,,,
the world will be a way better place without him,,,
Posted by terrorislamh
Remember this whole thing started because we took out that fat worthless fascist nazi terrorislamist pig Saddam. Things haven''t exactly been a bed of roses since then, I think his Mahdi army might become a truly Mad Army without their leader in control. - Reply to this comment
- The killing threatened to raise tensions amid a violent standoff between al-Sadr''s Mahdi Army militia and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.
-May his 72 virgins have STD''''s.
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Posted by mbcsmith at 10:12 AM : Apr 11, 2008
- Condomleesa Rice''s? - Reply to this comment
- Hmmm, So its Okay when Sadr authorizes drive by shootings and assassinations. But its unacceptable when an opposing organization does the same?
Come back to Iraq Sadr and voice your anger in person, please. - Reply to this comment
- Just as the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939 was illegal so was the Invasion of Iraq. Both were supported by lies and trumped up charges by the aggressor. Both the Leadership in Nazi Germany and the Leadership of the United States were and are guilty of War crimes for starting these wars. If Justice had a true "Champion" in the world, the leadership that started the Iraq war would be tried for war crimes just as the Nazi leadership was! Who is Justice%u2019s True Champion?
What moral right does anyone have to continue the Iraq war? Those of us who permit this injustice to continue either by design or compliancy are enablers sharing in these crimes!
What is the difference in the Nazis trying to stamp out the Jews and Bush, Cheney, and the Neocons killing hundreds of thousands of the people of Islam to get at their Oil and Natural Gas? - Reply to this comment
- "so you feel sorry for the guy getting shot? why?
Posted by jamesm12341"
You just proved my point, assclown. - Reply to this comment
- "why? you want us to feel sorry for him or something?
Posted by jamesm12341"
I know you are but what am I!
Geez...the Republican party''s been taken over by five year olds. - Reply to this comment
- "The nose picking, bedwetting libs in the US are probably upset that it wasn''''t an American soldier who was killed. Good news in the war is BAD news for dems.
Posted by LibH8er at 11:12 AM : Apr 11, 2008"
Well there''s a stupid comment. All the libs want is an end to the war one way or the other, either win it or get out. This BS that Patreaus is spewing is to develop an exit strategy for one person...Bush. So far the surge hasn''t done what it was supposed to do so what''s next a bigger surge? Why is it you neo-cons can only see force as the answer to a problem? Why not listen to all the Generals (who were promptly fired for saying so) that there is no military solution to Iraq, it has to be diplomatic and it has to involve the countries in the region. Then we can get back to doing what we should have been doing over the pat 6 years...hunting down Osama Bin Laden...remember him? - Reply to this comment
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