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| Iraq |
| Top Sadr official in Baghdad detained |
| 2008-12-20 |
| US and Iraqi soldiers detained an official from the "social" branch of anti-US Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's movement overnight, a spokesman for the movement said on Friday. "Sheikh Farid al-Fadheli, the Mumahidun co-ordinator for the east bank in Baghdad, was arrested at 2am on Friday by a joint unit of US and Iraqi forces in the Maamel district" of the city's northeast, Abu Zahra told AFP. The Mumahidun are the demilitarised wing of Sadr's 60,000-strong Mahdi Army militia, which he stood down in August. "The Mumahidun is an educational project aimed at combating secularism -- its weapons are the pen and knowledge," Fadheli told AFP in early December. "The programme should protect the Sadr movement from bad elements and separate the good from the bad," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 So: I suspect his actions did not match his words (though the article does not say why he was picked up). |
| Posted by: tipover 2008-12-20 12:25 |