US, Iraqi forces arrest Sadr aides in holy city

[ECH1969]

A top aide to a radical Shiite cleric and three others from his movement were arrested in a pre-dawn swoop by US and Iraqi forces in the holy city of Najaf Thursday, part of a nationwide crackdown on suspects in sectarian killings.

Salah al-Obeidi, a close colleague of firebrand Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, was picked up from his home in Najaf along with cleric Bassim al-Ghuraifi, Sadr's office said. Two others were also arrested, but their identities were not immediately known.

"We are carrying out continuous operations against individuals we believe are responsible for sectarian violence in the country," US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson told AFP.

The military had confirmed on Wednesday that it had detained a number of fighters from Sadr's Mahdi Army militia for their alleged involvement in sectarian killings of Sunni Arabs over the past month.

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=143132