U.S. Arrests Shiite Cleric’s Lieutenant

NAJAF, Iraq —  U.S. troops arrested a key lieutenant of radical cleric Muqtada Sadr in a raid here before dawn Wednesday, as clashes with militia fighters late Tuesday and early Wednesday killed about 30 people and wounded nearly 50, military and hospital officials said.

Violence also continued in Baghdad, with masked gunmen killing two technicians with a Russian energy firm as they headed to work at a power station. Their company said it would evacuate all staff from the country.

An Iraqi official, national security advisor Mouwafak Rabii, said Sadr had agreed to withdraw his militia from Najaf and hand the city back to Iraqi police.

There was no immediate confirmation from Sadr, however, and Rabii, a Shiite Muslim and a former member of the Iraqi Governing Council, said Sadr’s offer, made in a letter to the city’s Shiite clerical hierarchy, was conditional.

Rabii said that Sadr had offered to remove his fighters from Najaf -- except for those who live here -- but demanded that American and other coalition troops “return to base,” allowing Iraqi police to regain control of the city.

Sadr also demanded “broad discussions” within the Shiite community over the future of his Al Mahdi militia and that legal proceedings against him in a murder case be deferred until then.

U.S. forces seized Sadr lieutenant Riyadh Nouri during a raid on his Najaf home Wednesday. U.S. officials said Nouri offered no resistance.

The arrest was a major blow to the militia, which has been fighting coalition forces since early April in Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad and in cities south of the capital.

U.S. officials have expressed their desire for a peaceful settlement to the standoff but have insisted that Sadr disband his “illegal militia” and submit to “justice before an Iraqi court.”

U.S. forces employed tanks, planes and helicopters in fierce fighting in Najaf’s cemetery Wednesday, witnesses said. They reported many corpses collected near the Imam Ali shrine.

Witnesses said rebel fighters appeared to fire mortars indiscriminately, hitting houses and injuring civilians.

Meanwhile, efforts to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure were dealt a blow by the attack on workers with Russia’s Interenergoservis company, the third recent attack on Russian workers in Iraq.

The ambush occurred as a company bus was approaching the Doura power station in southwestern Baghdad. In addition to the two Russians, two Iraqis were killed and at least five people were wounded.

In Moscow, the Foreign Ministry blamed the deteriorating situation on the failure of the occupation authority “to guarantee the necessary security.”

Fighting also continued between coalition forces and Sadr loyalists in the Baghdad neighborhood called Sadr City.