Maliki 'orders' Sadr aide released by U.S. forces

Left: Sadr supporters in Najaf in 2004. Ahmed Shibani was a top Sadr aide and spokesman at the time of Sadr's first large-scale challenge to U.S. forces and the (interim) Iraqi government in Najaf in 2004. U.S. troops were ready to storm the holy city when Grand Ayatollah Sistani brokered a peace deal. The arrest warrant for Moqtada al-Sadr, though never acted upon, was from that time and is still in effect.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces have released a senior aide to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on the orders of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the prime minister's office said on Wednesday.

Ahmed Shibani, who had been held for more than a year, is a senior aide to Sadr, a radical anti-American cleric who is also the leader of the Mehdi Army militia which Washington recently called the greatest threat to security in Iraq. Sadr's political movement is an important part of the coalition government and holds several ministries.

"(Shibani) has been released this afternoon on the orders of Prime Minister Maliki," an official in the prime minister's office told Reuters.

Nassar al-Rubaei, head of the Sadrist bloc in parliament, said U.S. forces had been detaining Shibani without charge.

Read the rest at the Washington Post

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