McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS: US BLAMED FOR ASSASSINATION OF SADR AIDE

NAJAF, Iraq — Followers of the renegade cleric Muqtada al Sadr chanted anti-American slogans and vowed revenge for the assassination Friday of Sadr's top aide in Najaf, where outrage over the killing threatens to spiral into the second deadly uprising in southern Iraq in a month.

By Qassim Zein and Hannah Allam McClatchy Newspapers
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/33438.html

Riyadh al Nouri, 41, who ran the main Sadr office in Najaf and was known as a relative moderate within the movement, was gunned down as he returned home from prayers Friday afternoon, according to Iraqi authorities and the Sadr camp. No group has claimed responsibility for the slaying, which amounted to a highly provocative strike at Sadr's inner circle. Nouri was Sadr's brother-in-law.

"Long live Sadr! Muqtada is the bridge to heaven!" mourners chanted at Najaf's sprawling cemetery. Other slogans cursed the U.S. military and its Iraqi allies. Throngs of Sadr supporters referred to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki as "the enemy of God," "infidel," "coward" and an "agent of the Americans."

"The martyrdom of Seyyed Riyadh al Nouri has burned my heart, and I will not rest until I have avenged him," said Mohamed Hassan, a Mahdi Army militiaman who drove from the town of Kufa for the funeral.

The timing of the killing — not even two weeks after more than 120 people died and at least 300 were wounded in fighting between Sadr's militiamen and government forces in the port city of Basra — raises the specter of a wider rebellion that could spread to Sadr's strongholds in Baghdad.

That scenario would only further tax the outgunned Iraqi security forces and could undo the gains of the U.S. military's widely touted troop buildup strategy.

Sadr, who's believed to be studying theology in neighboring Iran, issued a statement blaming the United States and the Iraqi government for his aide's assassination, describing his enemies as acting "traitorously and aggressively against our dear martyr." Sadr also demanded a swift investigation from the authorities and calm from his furious supporters.

"We will not forget this precious blood. I call upon Sadr followers to be patient. The occupiers will not rest in our land as long as I am alive," Sadr said in the statement.

Maliki quickly condemned the killing and said gangs were behind the attack. In a brief televised address, Maliki also mourned Nouri and included the slain Sadr aide among targeted "moderate religious personalities."

Nouri was married to one of Sadr's sisters, and one of Nouri's sisters is married to Sadr's brother, Mustafa, according to the Najaf office. Despite their close relationship, Nouri had at times challenged his militant brother-in-law and was well known for his stance against spilling the blood of Iraqi security forces and rival Shiites, as well as his opposition to the Sadr movement's decision last year to step down from posts in Maliki's administration.

Nouri was also Sadr's handpicked chief negotiator with the Iraqi government, said Abdulhadi al Mohammedawi, director of the Sadr office in nearby Karbala.

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