Two killed and Sadr aide arrested in Iraq raid, residents say

HILLA, Iraq - Two Iraqis were killed and an aide to rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was arrested in a raid by troops of US-led occupation forces in the Iraqi city of Hilla, residents of the city and Sadr aides said on Sunday.

Officials of the Polish-led contingent of multinational troops deployed in the area said they had no information on the incident, as did a spokeswoman for the US military headquarters in Baghdad.

Hilla residents said the soldiers stormed a meeting of religious students and tribal representatives in the city, about 100km south of Baghdad, on Saturday, and opened fire.

Television footage of the site of the raid early on Sunday showed pools of blood and human remains, as well as bullet holes pockmarking interior walls of the building where the meeting was held.

An aide to Sadr -- whose followers rose up last month against US troops in Baghdad and allied forces in southern Iraq after the arrest of one of his lieutenants -- said the raid was part of a US campaign against the cleric, who has denounced the occupation of Iraq.

"It is in a pattern of humiliation of the men of religion," Sadr's aide Sheikh Qays al-Khazali told Reuters Television in the Shi'ite shrine city of Najaf. "The occupation forces continue to violate human rights and the rights of the Iraqi people."

US military officials say they will capture or kill Sadr, who has been in Najaf and the nearby city of Kufa since the start of the uprising. US troops surround Najaf, which is sacred to Shi'ite Muslims who make up some 60 per cent of Iraq's population and where the presence of troops would incite fury.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq