- Title: IRAQ: GUNBATTLE IN NAJAF/ US FORCES DETAIN TOP AIDE OF SHI'TE CLERIC SADR
- Date: 21st May 2004
- Summary: (W7) NAJAF, IRAQ (MAY 21, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. SLV ACCRAM AL KABI, SPOKESMAN FOR MOQTADA AL SADR SPEAKING TO JOURNALISTS 0.04 2. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ACCRAM AL KABI, SPOKESMAN FOR MOQTADA AL SADR SAYING "As Sayed Mohammed Tabtabai returned from Kufa mosque, after Friday Prayers, U.S. forces, backed by helicopters and vehicles, opened fire on his
- Embargoed: 5th June 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NAJAF/KUFA, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVAF811GAA4X78T8JZPG2VGIM13
- Story Text: U.S. forces detain a top aide of rebel Shi'ite
cleric Moqtada Sadr.
In a statement, Sadr aide Accram al Kabi said a top
aide to rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr was arrested
by US forces in Najaf on Friday (May 21, 2004).
Mohammad Tabtabai, was arrested and his driver killed
when U.S. forces intercepted their car between Najaf and
nearby Kufa, where Sadr led Friday prayers according to al
Kabi.
"As Sayed Mohammed Tabtabai returned from Kufa mosque, after
Friday Prayers, US forces, backed by helicopters and vehicles,
opened fire on his car, whilst he was driving with his driver
and a religious student. The driver was killed. The other one
was injured and US forces arrested Sayed," al Kabi said.
He added that the US forces were under the impression
that they had caught the man himself.
"They thought that Sayed Moqtada Sadr was in the car,"
he said.
Earlier on Friday loud explosions and gunfire echoed
through the Shiite holy city of Najaf and nearby Kufa and
thick black smoke filled the sky as clashes resumed between
U.S.-led coalition troops and the militia of radical Iraqi
Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr. The smoke was seen rising from
over the downtown 1920
Revolution Square, which was sealed off, and the city's
vast cemetery which was the scene of heavy fighting late on
Thursday night.
The area is less than two kilometres (one mile) from
the Imam Ali mausoleum in the city centre.
Sadr, who is wanted by the coalition in connection with
last year's murder of a moderate Shiite cleric, himself
delivered the weekly sermon, as in past weeks, at Kufa
mosque, near Najaf, one of his aides told AFP by telephone.
Militiamen also clashed with U.S. troops at the
entrance to Kufa on the banks of the Euphrates before the
midday prayers, but no fighting was reported inside the
city itself.
The violence in Najaf erupted at 11:30 am (0730 GMT) as
mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades rumbled through
the city, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Baghdad.
The fresh clashes appeared to bring the fight closer to
Najaf's centre.
Bullets whizzed in the alleyways around the Imam Ali
mausoleum as militiamen armed with assault rifles and
rocket-propelled grenade launchers were deployed in force
on the deserted streets.
Shops were shuttered and only the brave few ventured to
the mosque at the shrine to attend the Friday prayers.
In the overnight fighting near the cemetery, one
civilian was killed and six others wounded, according to
Kifah Shamal, director of Hakim hospital.
The dead civilian was a truck driver who was caught up
in the fighting on the road leading out of Najaf to the
other holy city of Kerbala to the northwest, said the
hospital.
Sadr, who is holed up with his Mehdi Army militia in
the centre of Najaf, has snubbed all mediation efforts so
far and has vowed to die a "martyr."
"Don't let my death or my arrest serve as an excuse to
end your resistance. Continue and God will give you
victory," Sadr said at Friday prayers in Kufa.
He thanked Sunni Muslims for their support.
"I thank the Sunnis, especially the Muslim Clerics
Association, which helped us a lot and for offering to
fight along side us," Sadr said.
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