Re-opening of Iraqi National Assembly postponed by slaying of Sadr aide

Nouri al-Maliki, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, Moqtada al-Sadr,
Harith al-Dhari and Massoud Barzani

The resumption of Iraq's parliament has been delayed by the killing of a senior aide to politically and militarily powerful Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Sahib al-Amiri was killed by a U.S. soldier during a joint raid with Iraqi forces in the southern holy city of Najaf, which infuriated Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Washington Post correspondent reported.

Amiri was suspected of supplying explosives to insurgents and reportedly raised an automatic weapon at an approaching Iraqi soldier and was shot.

That dashed Maliki's hopes of getting the anti-U.S. Sadr to end a parliamentary boycott of his 30 parliamentarians and four Cabinet ministers. Sadr called the boycott last month over Maliki's meeting with U.S. President George Bush in Jordan.

Read the rest at the Washington Times

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