Sadr's group accuses US of provoking confrontation

Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's political movement accused Washington on Saturday of trying to provoke a confrontation by arresting of one of its key figures.
Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji, a spokesman for Sadr, was among at least three people arrested by US and Iraqi troops in a midnight raid on Sadr City, a stronghold of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia in north-east Baghdad where US forces rarely venture.
Sadr's movement is a member of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shia bloc in the government, but Maliki has been criticised by Washington and leaders of the once-dominant Sunni Arab minority for failing to disarm his Mehdi Army.
Abdul Mahdi Mtiri, a member of the Sadrists' political committee, said Iraqi officials had promised Darraji would be released. "We don't know how serious this promise is because so far he has not been released," Mtiri told Reuters.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, who said on Friday the operation had Maliki's full backing, told Iraqiya state television he did not expect Darraji to be released on Saturday. "The matter is not in the hands of the Iraqi government. The Americans arrested him and they're investigating him and when they're finished they will release him," said Dabbagh.
Dealing with Sadr and the Mehdi Army militia is a burning issue for US forces and Maliki as they prepare what many see as a last-ditch effort to curb the sectarian violence that is pushing Iraq towards civil war.
Sadr, a young populist cleric, enjoys a mass following in Iraq and some backing from Shia Iran. "We know the truth behind this arrest is the Americans want to target the Sadrists and they want to draw the Sadrists into a confrontation with the American troops," Mtiri said. Both Shia militias and Sunni insurgent groups are blamed for thousands of killings in the past year. The United Nations says more than 34,000 civilians were killed in 2006. Dozens of people are found tortured and shot in Baghdad every day.
Dabbagh said on Friday Darraji's arrest was "not against the Sadrists" as a political movement, but motivated by security concerns about Darraji. The US military did not confirm he was among those arrested. The mayor of Sadr City, Rahim al-Darraji, said there were no armed groups in the area except for official government forces.
In a raid in south Baghdad on Saturday, around 100 Iraqi police commandos backed by six US helicopters killed 15 suspected Sunni Arab insurgents Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said.