Top al-Sadr aide gunned down

NAJAF, Iraq – Followers of the renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr chanted anti-American slogans and vowed revenge for the assassination Friday of al-Sadr’s top aide in Najaf, where outrage over the killing threatens to spiral into the second deadly uprising in southern Iraq in a month.

Riyadh al Nouri, 41, who ran the main al-Sadr office in Najaf and was known as a relative moderate within the movement, was gunned down as he returned home from prayers Friday afternoon, according to Iraqi authorities and the al-Sadr camp. No group has claimed responsibility for the slaying, which amounted to a highly provocative strike at al-Sadr’s inner circle. Nouri was al-Sadr’s brother-in-law.

“Long live Sadr! Muqtada is the bridge to heaven!” mourners chanted at Najaf’s sprawling cemetery. Other slogans cursed the U.S. military and its Iraqi allies. Throngs of al-Sadr supporters referred to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as “the enemy of God,” “infidel,” “coward” and an “agent of the Americans.”

“The martyrdom of Seyyed Riyadh al Nouri has burned my heart, and I will not rest until I have avenged him,” said Mohamed Hassan, a Mahdi Army militiaman who drove from the town of Kufa for the funeral.

The timing of the killing – not even two weeks after more than 120 people died and at least 300 were wounded in fighting between al-Sadr’s militiamen and government forces in the port city of Basra – raises the specter of a wider rebellion that could spread to al-Sadr’s strongholds in Baghdad.

That scenario would only further tax the outgunned Iraqi security forces and could undo the gains of the U.S. military’s widely touted troop buildup strategy.

Al-Sadr, who’s believed to be studying theology in neighboring Iran, issued a statement blaming the United States and the Iraqi government for his aide’s assassination, describing his enemies as acting “traitorously and aggressively against our dear martyr.” Al-Sadr also demanded a swift investigation from the authorities and calm from his furious supporters.

“We will not forget this precious blood. I call upon Sadr followers to be patient. The occupiers will not rest in our land as long as I am alive,” al-Sadr said in the statement.

Al-Maliki quickly condemned the killing and said gangs were behind the attack. In a brief televised address, al-Maliki also mourned Nouri and included the slain al-Sadr aide among targeted “moderate religious personalities.”

Nouri was married to one of al-Sadr’s sisters, and one of Nouri’s sisters is married to al-Sadr’s brother, Mustafa, according to the Najaf office. Despite their close relationship, Nouri had at times challenged his militant brother-in-law and was well known for his stance against spilling the blood of Iraqi security forces and rival Shiites, as well as his opposition to the al-Sadr movement’s decision last year to step down from posts in al-Maliki’s administration.

Nouri was also al-Sadr’s handpicked chief negotiator with the Iraqi government, said Abdulhadi al Mohammedawi, director of the al-Sadr office in nearby Karbala.