Radical cleric’s aide arrested during raid in Baghdad

US and Iraqi forces arrested one of Muqtada al-Sadr’s top aides yesterday in Baghdad, his office said, as pressure increased on the radical Shiite cleric’s militia ahead of a planned security crackdown in the capital.

An adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, however, denied the government knew in advance about the raid, in which Sheik Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji was captured, and said the detention was not part of the new operation aimed at quelling sectarian violence.

“Co-ordination with the Iraqi political leadership is needed before conducting such operations that draw popular reactions,” the adviser, Mr Sadiq al-Rikabi, told Al-Arabiya.

“This arrest was not part of the new security plan.”

Sheik Al-Darraji was captured and his guard was killed in a raid on a mosque in eastern Baghdad, according to senior officials with the cleric’s movement.