TENSIONS MOUNT AS TOP AL-SADR AIDE IS MURDERED

The already volatile situation in Iraq just became more serious with the murder of one of rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's top aides.

A curfew has been ordered for Najaf, and all American military personnel have been told to be doubly cautious when they go out on patrol.

There are fears that Iraq is about to erupt into violence like they have never seen before.

(NOTE FROM BILL CORCORAN, EDITOR OF CORKSPERE: KEEP CHECKING THIS SITE FOR THE LATEST NEWS ABOUT THE TENSE SITUATION IN IRAQ)

IRAQ WRAPUP 4-Curfew on Iraq's Najaf as top Sadr aide killed

REUTERSReuters North American News Service
Apr 11, 2008 11:24 EST
By Khaled Farhan

NAJAF, Iraq, April 11 (Reuters) - Iraqi police imposed a curfew to prevent an outbreak of violence in the southern Shi'ite holy city of Najaf on Friday, after a senior aide to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was shot dead.

Police set up road blocks and drove through the city with loudspeakers ordering shops closed and people off the streets after Riyadh al-Nuri, a top Sadr aide whose sister is married to the cleric's brother, was gunned down.

Sadr blamed the United States and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government for the slaying.
"This is the hand of the occupier and his successor reaching out traitorously and aggressively against our precious martyr," the cleric said in a statement. "It is my vow that I will not forget this precious blood."

Dozens of angry followers gathered at Shi'ite Islam's main cemetery in the holy city to to bury Riyadh.

In a speech to mourners, Sadr aide Abdul-Hadi al-Mohammedawi quoted the cleric as saying followers should remain "calm and not to drift into strife".

A struggle for power among Shi'ites in the south has involved frequent assassinations over recent years. But the death of someone so close to Sadr risks inflaming those tensions at a time when his militia has been at the centre of an upsurge in violence in Baghdad and throughout the south.