Iraq officials say U.S. behind Sadr aide killing

28 Dec 2006 13:09:51 GMT

By Khaled Farhan

NAJAF, Iraq, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Iraqi officials in the city of Najaf said on Thursday that a raid which killed a top aide of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was a violation of the deal that transferred U.S. control of Najaf to the Iraqi army.

Less than 10 days after the U.S. military handed control of Najaf to Iraqi forces, U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell told reporters that a U.S. soldier killed Saheb al-Amiri in a raid planned and carried out by Iraqi forces.

But officials in Najaf said neither the provincial governor nor security forces in the city were warned about the raid and disputed that the Iraqis had planned the operation.

The raid led to angry protests by thousands of Sadr supporters against U.S. forces during Amiri's funeral.

Sadr controls the Mehdi Army, which U.S. forces blame for widespread sectarian killings and unrest in parts of southern and central Iraq, including a district of Baghdad which bears his family name.

Caldwell said the raid was carried out by 35 soldiers from the 8th Iraqi Army Division with the assistance of eight U.S. military advisers.

A spokesman for Najaf's governor called Amiri's killing an "assassination" and said the raid violated the handover's security agreement. Sadr aides said Amiri was head of a charity for the poor and had no links to militias.

"The governor of Najaf considers it a violation of the security treaty since the security file was officially handed over to Iraqis," Najaf governor spokesman Ahmed Diabil said.

Iraqi army and police spokesman in Najaf, Colonel Ali Numas Ijrau, also disputed the account given by Caldwell.

"We didn't have any information about an operation targeting the house of Saheb al-Amiri. It is American intelligence who collected the information and who raided the house," he said.

FRACTIOUS COALITION

Iraq's Defence Ministry spokesman could not be reached for comment and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his ministers were in a cabinet meeting all morning. The killing could have dire repercussions for Maliki's fractious Shi'ite-led coalition.

Sadr, nominally an ally of Maliki but whose supporters in parliament and in the cabinet have staged a boycott to protest Maliki's meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush last month, has led two uprisings against U.S. forces in the past.

U.S. commanders have put pressure on Maliki to crack down on the Mehdi Army, but Maliki is said to be reluctant to further alienate the young cleric amid efforts to lure Sadr supporters back to the cabinet. A Pentagon report this month said Mehdi Army militias were the biggest threat to Iraq's security.

On Wednesday Sadr urged calm, but said: "We know that Bush, God's enemy, cries for the deaths of his soldiers in Iraq. We ask God to prolong his crying and suffering."

Caldwell said Amiri resisted arrest, fled to the rooftop and was shot dead by a U.S. soldier who saw him pointing an assault rifle at Iraqi soldiers. But a son of Amiri, aged about 13, said his father was unarmed when he was killed.

"My dad went to the roof and tried to escape over the wall to the neighbours. He didn't have time to take his gun out and he ran upstairs unarmed. They came in and ran upstairs after him and we heard four shots," Ahmed Amiri told Reuters.

"When they left we went upstairs and saw he had three bullet wounds in the chest and one in the head."