Gunmen kill Sadrist official in Iraq

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

BAGHDAD - Iraqi officials say gunmen have killed a senior aide to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

The officials say Riyadh al-Nouri was the director of al-Sadr's office in Najaf. He was shot to death as he drove home after attending Friday prayers in the nearby city of Kufa.

A policeman and an official in al-Sadr's Najaf office confirmed the killing but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080411/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

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Iraqi Police: Curfew In Najaf After Al-Sadr Aide Shooing -AFP



NAJAF, Iraq (AFP)--Police in Najaf have imposed an immediate curfew on the holy city following the shooting of a top official from radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's movement.

Riyad al-Nuri, director of the Sadr movement's office in Najaf, was shot dead near his home as he was returning from the weekly prayers, Najaf police chief Major General Abdul Karim Mustafa said.

more:http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20080411%5cACQDJON200804110828DOWJONESDJONLINE000625.htm&&mypage=newsheadlines&title=Iraqi%20Police:%20Curfew%20In%20Najaf%20After%20Al-Sadr%20Aide%20Shooing%20-AFP

[global1]

1. What Kind Of Gunmen?.....

Iraqi gunmen? U.S.gunmen? Blackwater gunmen? Rival sect gunmen?

[bemildred]

2. Shhhhhh! Don't ask, don't tell. nt

[The Magistrate]

11. My Guess, Sir

S.I.I.C. shootists presently employed as Iraqi police.....

[bemildred]

15. Sir! How nice to see you.

I would expect something of the sort. Such people often serve many masters. A provocation, a warning, an act of revenge, who can say? Not the first time either for this sort of thing.

[bemildred]

3. Al-Sadr's brother-in-law killed in Iraq's Najaf (1st Lead)

Baghdad - Militants in Iraq killed on Friday the brother-in- law of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the city of Najaf, some 180 kilometres south of the capital Baghdad, Sadrist sources said.

Sources in al-Sadr's office told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Riyad al-Nuri, one of al-Sadr's closest aides, was killed by militants but no further details were given.

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Sadrist sources told dpa that joint US-Iraqi forces attacked the office of al-Sadr in the Nomaneiya area in the city of Kut, some 170 kilometres south of the Iraqi capital.

The troops burnt the office after killing the Sadrists inside it, the Sadrist sources said.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1399460.php/Al-Sadrs_brother-in-law_killed_in_Iraqs_Najaf__1st_Lead_

[maddezmom]

4. more: Sadr movement blamed US forces "and others working with them."

Sadr movement blamed US forces "and others working with them."

A Sadr official in Najaf, Haider al-Turfi, said the gunmen were waiting for 37-year-old Nuri near his home in the city's eastern neighbourhood of Al-Adala.

"When he arrived from the prayers, they opened fire on him, killing him instantly," Turfi said.

State television Al-Iraqiya said Maliki had condemned "the brutal assassination" of Nuri, while Sadr spokesman Salah al-Obeidi told AFP that the cleric had demanded a probe into the killing.

"Moqtada al-Sadr has urged the Iraqi government to conduct a detailed investigation into the killing and to find those who committed the act," Obeidi said.

He said Sadr had also ordered the movement to hold condolence meetings at its offices in Najaf, in Baghdad, Qom in Iran and Damascus in Syria.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080411/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrest_080411155613

[bemildred]

5. Where the heck is Negroponte these days anyway? nt

[maddezmom]

6. working on(messing around) free trade stuff with an eye on Hugo

US still committed to Colombia, S. Korea deals -State 11 Apr 2008 15:12:06 GMT
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) - The Bush administration still hopes to win approval of a free trade pact with Colombia, despite a vote in the House of Representatives to indefinitely delay action on the deal, a top U.S. official said on Friday.

"We remain committed to the Columbia free trade agreement, which we believe to be both in the economic and the national security interests of the United States," Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said in a speech to the U.S.-Asia Pacific Council.

"Ultimately, if that agreement does not go through, this would be a victory for the populistic and nondemocratic forces in the hemisphere," Negroponte added, in an apparent reference to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the region's other opponents of the U.S. policy.

Negroponte also urged Congress to approve a free trade agreement with South Korea that has been held up partly because of that country's refusal to fully reopen its market to U.S. beef more than three years after the first case of mad cow disease was found in the United States.

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N11347689.htm

[bemildred]

8. So many little countries, so little time ...

He made a "visit" to Pakistan's new leaders recently too. I suppose the death-squads in Iraq don't need much day-to-day supervision.

[acmavm]

10. Yeah, but the Pakistani Prime Minister (I believe) asked him

what was the deal, did he think he was in Honduras? They certainly were not awed or impressed.

[bemildred]

16. Yeah, I read he was not a great popular success there.

In fact there seemed to be some annoyance about the manner of the visit.

[Stuart G]

7. So, If more and worse rioting breaks out cause of this, then the surge has really really worked..eh?

[maddezmom]

9. .Al-Sadr blames U.S. for aide's death

Al-Sadr blames U.S. for aide's death
Updated 1h 50m ago | Comments381 | Recommend26 E-mail | Save | Print |

BAGHDAD (AP) — Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has blamed the United States and the Iraqi government for the death of a senior aide in the holy city of Najaf.
The cleric's office issued a statement in which al-Sadr promises he won't "forget this precious blood" but he urges his followers to "be patient."

Friday's statement comes hours after Riyadh al-Nouri was gunned down as he drove home after attending prayers. Al-Nouri was the director of al-Sadr's office in Najaf.

Al-Sadr has his headquarters in Najaf, but the shrines in that city are dominated by a rival Shiite group and most of his followers are concentrated in Kufa.


more:http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-04-11-iraq-friday_N.htm?csp=34

[uppityperson]

12. "This killing will bring chaos to the country," warned Kadhim Wayid, 50, a government employee.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hD68Y8MQPGgdOxONxFauEdZrIHEw
(clip)
Sadr's supporters in Najaf too expressed their anger at the killing.

"This killing will bring chaos to the country," warned Kadhim Wayid, 50, a government employee. "The assassination of any person not carrying a weapon is a major crime."
(clip)

[tekisui]

13. Top Aide to Al-Sadr Assassinated in Iraq

Source: AP

BAGHDAD (AP) — Gunmen assassinated a top aide of anti-American leader Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday, sharpening a Shiite power struggle that has already triggered fighting between the cleric's followers and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.

Riyadh al-Nouri, director of al-Sadr's office in Najaf, was gunned down by an unknown number assailants near his home after returning from prayer services, police and Sadrist officials said.

Al-Sadr blamed the Americans and their Iraqi allies for the killing but called for calm — presumably to avoid a showdown at a time his Mahdi Army militia is under pressure by Iraqi and U.S.-led forces in Baghdad and southern Iraq.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, also a Shiite, condemned "this savage crime" and ordered an investigation "to pursue and arrest the killers." But many of the 5,000 people who attended al-Nouri's funeral later Friday in Najaf chanted "al-Maliki is the enemy of God" as they shouted slogans against al-Sadr's Shiite political rivals.

Authorities declared a curfew in Najaf, the world's premier Shiite theological center 100 miles south of Baghdad. Security forces took to the streets in several major cities across the Shiite south. A curfew was also imposed in Hillah, where government troops clashed with al-Sadr's militia last month.

The assassination of such an influential Sadrist figure is likely to increase tension between al-Sadr's movement and the Shiite-led government.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD8VVSP180

[tekisui]

14. Sadr blames the "Occupiers".

In his statement Friday, al-Sadr, who is believed to be in the Iranian holy city of Qom, blamed the killing on "the hands of the occupiers and their stooges reaching out traitorously and aggressively against our dear martyr," a reference to the U.S. and its Iraqi allies.

"I call upon Sadrist followers to be patient," said al-Sadr, who is under enormous pressure from all Iraqi political parties to disband his militia, his most important instrument of power.

"The occupiers will not rest in our land as long as I am alive," he said. "We demand the government open an investigation and punish the criminals. We call upon all political and religious groups to work toward ending the killing of clerics."

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, described the killing as an attempt "to destabilize the country" and encourage "fighting among brothers in religion."

Soon after the assassination, a rocket slammed into the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, blowing a large hole in the wall and devastating an unoccupied room. Police said three people were killed, but hotel staff said only two employees received minor injuries.

It appeared the rocket had been fired from a Shiite militia area at the Green Zone, located directly across the Tigris River from the hotel, but had strayed off-target.