Iraqi Shi'ites demand release of Sadr aide

BAGHDAD, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Iraq's normally fractious Shi'ite political parties united on Thursday to criticise Washington and demand the release of a top aide to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr after he was arrested by U.S. forces.

Salah al-Obeydi was among a group arrested overnight by U.S. and Iraqi forces in the holy city of Najaf, Sadr's followers said. U.S. troops did not immediately comment on the arrests.

In a rare show of unity, leaders of rival Shi'ite groups stood beside a Sadrist member of parliament at a brief news conference in Baghdad as he denounced the U.S. raid and called for the defence minister, a Sunni, to explain the arrest.

"We demand their immediate release and an explanation from the defence minister over the involvement of Iraqi soldiers in this operation," Falah Hasan Shanshal said.

Haider al-Ibadi, a member of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Dawa party speaking beside Shanshal, said the government was not warned about the U.S. raid.

"Regretfully, there are foreign powers who carry out dangerous violations in peaceful provinces," he said.

"We say there should be no arrests unless by a judicial order, secondly our own forces should make the arrests," added Hadi al-Amery, head of the Badr organisation, linked to the party that is Sadr's main rival in the ruling Shi'ite coalition.

A spokesman for Sadr's organisation in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf blamed the government for a number of military raids on people associated with it in recent weeks, saying they ran contrary to the spirit of national reconciliation.

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