U.S., Iraqi forces arrest key Sadr lieutenant Darraji

Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji

BAGHDAD -- U.S. and Iraqi troops arrested a high-level aide to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr in Baghdad early this morning, according to American and Iraqi officials.

The U.S. military said Iraqi army special forces led the raid in an eastern Baghdad neighborhood, arresting Sheik Abdul Hadi Darraji, a Sadr spokesman, and two others.

Darraji heads a group suspected of carrying out extrajudicial punishments against Iraqi civilians, including torture and murder, the U.S. military alleged in a statement. He has also allegedly been involved in assassinating Iraqi security forces and government officials, the statement said.

The leader known as Abu Dura is a notorious figure in Sadr City, apparently responsible for numerous deaths and grisly torture. By several accounts, Abu Dura has split with Sadr and is running a renegade cell of killers.

Read the rest at the LA Times

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