Top aide to al-Sadr arrested in Baghdad

A top aide to Moqtada al-Sadr was arrested on Jan. 19 in an operation carried out by US and Iraqi forces. Abdul Hadi al-Darraji, Sadr's media director in Baghdad, was arrested at a house in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Baladiyat, said Abdul Razak al-Nadawi, a spokesman for Sadr. The spokesman said one of Sadr's guards was killed during the operation. At least two other men were taken into custody, according to the US military. Nadawi said Sadr "condemns the operation," and asked supporters to take to the streets after the Friday prayer to protest the arrest. "After that we will take dangerous decisions that will not have any benefits for the country," the spokesman warned. Nassar al-Rubaie, the head of al-Sadr's bloc in parliament, accused US forces of trying to provoke the Sadrists into violence during the expanding campaign to quell Iraq's fighting. "We condemn strongly the arrest of Sheik Abdul Hadi al-Darraji. He is moderate and well-known as a media personality and always available in negotiations," al-Rubaie said. "He is a peaceful man and what was mentioned in the American [press] release is lies and justification for the aggression against al-Sadr's movement." According to a statement issued by the US military, Darraji is suspected of participating in sectarian death-squad activity and in the assassination of Iraqi security force members and politicians. The statement, which did not mention Darraji by name, said the operation was carried out by "Special Iraqi Army Forces" working with "coalition advisers." "The suspect allegedly leads various illegal armed group operations and is affiliated with illegal armed group cells targeting Iraqi civilians for sectarian attacks and violence," the statement said. The arrest comes as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is under pressure from Washington to demonstrate that he's unafraid to take on Sadr and other Shiite militias. Maliki recently told reporters his government has arrested 430 Mahdi Army members in recent days. The group disputed the prime minister's timeline, saying 425 members of its army have been arrested since August 2004. Two days after the arrest of Darraji, Sadr's political front ended a damaging two-month boycott of the Iraqi parliament after reaching a deal with Maliki. The boycott had been called in protest at a meeting between Maliki and President Bush and to press for the withdrawal from Iraq of US troops. The deal signaled a thaw in relations among factions within the government. The Sadrists control a bloc of 32 seats in the 275-member assembly and have six members in the Shia-majority cabinet. Maliki is politically dependent on support from Sadr's bloc, despite the fact that he has vowed to crack down on the Mahdi Army. Meanwhile, Sadr has reportedly moved his family to a secure location because of fears he will become the target of a security sweep. In an interview with Sadr, published in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the cleric claimed his organization was being targeted. "For this reason, I have moved my family to a secure location. I even have had a will drawn up, and I move continuously in a way that only few can know where I am," he was quoted as saying. "But even if I were to die, Mahdi would continue to exist. Men can be killed. Faith and ideas cannot," he said. Sadr said that his men would not fight during the Islamic month of Muharram, which marks the death of Muhammad's grandson Hussein, but that afterwards, he said, "we'll see."