Radical Shiite cleric's main aid arrested in Baghdad

US and Iraqi forces arrested one of Muqtada al-Sadr’s top aides today in Baghdad, his office said, as pressure increases on the radical Shiite cleric’s militia ahead of a planned security sweep aimed at stemming the sectarian violence ransacking the capital.

The raid came as US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates began his second trip to Iraq in less than a month, arriving in the southern city of Basra to consult with British and other allied commanders.

Sheikh Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji, al-Sadr’s media director in Baghdad, was captured and his personal guard was killed in a raid on a mosque complex in eastern Baghdad, according to senior officials with the cleric’s movement.

“We strongly condemn this cowardly act,” Sheikh Abdul-Zahra al-Suweiadi said.

The US military said special Iraqi army forces operating with coalition advisers captured a high-level, illegal armed group leader in Baladiyat, a neighbourhood that is adjacent to the Mahdi Army militia stronghold of Sadr City, but it did not identify the detainee.

It said two other suspects were detained by Iraqi forces for further questioning.

The raid came as Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has pledged to crack down on Shiite militias as well as Sunni insurgents in a planned security operation to quell the sectarian violence in Baghdad amid concerns that his reluctance to confront the Mahdi Army of his political backer al-Sadr led to the failure of two previous crackdowns.

Militia commanders have said the Shiite prime minister has stopped protecting the fighters under pressure from Washington and have described pinpoint raids in which at least five top commanders of similar standing were captured or killed in recent months.

The US military accused the main suspect captured today of having ties with the commanders of so-called death squads, which have been blamed for many of the killings that have left dozens of bodies, often showing signs of torture, on the streets of Baghdad.

The suspect was detained “based on credible intelligence that he is the leader of illegal armed group punishment committee activity, involving the organised kidnapping, torture and murder of Iraqi civilians,” according to the military statement.

It also said he was reportedly involved in the assassination of numerous Iraqi security forces and government officials.

“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, adding he was believed to be affiliated with Baghdad death squad commanders, including Abu Diraa, a Shiite militia leader who has gained a reputation for his brutality.

Al-Suweiadi did not give more details, but another official in al-Sadr’s office said al-Darraji was captured during a 2am raid on a mosque in Baladiyat, less than a mile from a US base.

The official and an Iraqi police officer also said one of the mosque’s guards was killed in a firefight during the raid that damaged the mosque walls, while four other people who were with the sheikh were arrested.

Abdul-Razzaq al-Nidawi, an al-Sadr aide in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, demanded that al-Darraji and other detainees from the cleric’s movement, be released and called for demonstrations after the weekly Friday prayer services.

“America is playing with fire and our patience is beginning to fade,” he said. “This savage barbarian act will not pass peacefully.”

Gates, who met earlier with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, said they had expressed concern about whether Maliki can deliver on his promises to rein in the violence and “quite frankly, these are reservations that have been expressed in Washington, and we will be watching.”

A roadside bomb killed one US soldier and wounded three others Thursday in an attack against a patrol that was escorting a convoy in north-western Baghdad, the military said Friday.

The military said members of the unit have been escorting numerous convoys carrying troops and materials throughout Baghdad in the past week.

US and Iraqi forces are gearing up for a major neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood sweep aimed at quelling the spiralling violence in the capital.