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US says holds Baghdad Shi'ite militant in raid

Posted on: Friday, 7 July 2006, 05:20 CDT

By Ahmed Rasheed and Ross Colvin

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least seven people were killed when U.S.-led forces clashed with Shi'ite militants in Baghdad's Sadr City slum early on Friday in an operation to capture a local warlord accused of kidnaps and killings.

The U.S. military said the man, whom it declined to name, was seized after Iraqi troops killed or wounded 30-40 fighters defending the building where he was taken. The bodies of at least seven people, including two women, were seen in hospital.

The Interior Ministry said there were nine dead in total and 31 wounded and that four houses were destroyed.

Shi'ite political sources named the target of the raid as Abu Deraa, a locally famed -- and feared -- commander nominally attached to the Mehdi Army militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. They said it appeared Abu Deraa was still at large, however.

Suspected of ordering the kidnap of a Sunni woman lawmaker that prompted the minority to boycott parliament this week, he had previously been disciplined by Sadr. The U.S. military said the man targeted may have been running a splinter movement.

A U.S. military spokesman declined to confirm that Abu Deraa was the "high-level insurgent" it believed had been taken. Local Mehdi Army representatives insisted Abu Deraa was still free but that others close to him had been arrested.

Sadr aides condemned the operation and local people accused the troops of killing innocent civilians. The young cleric is fiercely opposed to the U.S. occupation but his supporters also hold key posts in the Shi'ite-dominated coalition government.

"The captured individual heads multiple insurgent cells in Baghdad whose main focus is to conduct attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces," the U.S. military said in a statement, adding that no Iraqi or U.S. troops were hurt in a "43-minute" battle.

"He and his followers have kidnapped, tortured and murdered Iraqi citizens ... Additionally, he is linked to a 'punishment committee' that carries out vigilante judgment.

"(He) is also involved in the transfer of weapons from Syria into Iraq to reportedly facilitate his efforts to splinter away from his current insurgent organization," the military added.

Political sources said the raid was launched in part to find Taiseer al-Mashhadani, a Sunni lawmaker kidnapped on Saturday in a Shi'ite district of Baghdad with seven of her bodyguards. Her colleagues have refused to attend parliament until she is freed, pointing the finger of blame at pro-government Shi'ite militias.

The raid comes at a time when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is seeking to heal sectarian tension between fellow Shi'ites and once-dominant Sunnis that have pitched the country toward civil war. He is also trying to end a three-year-old Sunni insurgency.

Maliki has vowed to disband the militias. Analysts say they pose a growing threat to his seven-week-old national unity coalition government, which Washington views as the best hope of averting a slide to all-out civil war.

A spokesman for Sadr in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf condemned the operation as a "criminal act."

CARTRIDGES, CORPSES

Television footage showed the bodies of seven people, including the bloodied corpses of two women shrouded in blankets in coffins in the morgue of Sadr City hospital.

In the hospital's emergency room, doctors treated some of the wounded, including a young boy with a face wound as his wailing mother shouted "God does not accept this."

Residents showed a U.S.-made M-16 assault rifle and spent casings from heavy machineguns and said two the victims had been two men guarding a funeral tent. Footage showed the tent burned to the ground, with only its wire frame still standing.

Sadr City appeared calm but tense late Friday morning.

An Interior Ministry source said the fighting first erupted when U.S. and Iraqi forces backed by helicopters raided houses in the slum district of Sadr City at around 2 a.m. (2200 GMT).

The Interior Ministry source said nine people were killed and 31 wounded. Other police sources put the death toll at seven and said the casualties were all militiamen.

Sadr's followers staged two uprising against U.S. forces in 2004. The young cleric has since joined the political process.

Source: REUTERS

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