US forces detain Islamic Salafist scholar in Tikrit (Roundup)

Aug 9, 2007, 14:23 GMT

Baghdad - US forces, backed by helicopters, cordoned off the house of Sheikh Abu al-Manar al-Alami in the al-Alam region in north- east Tikrit, arresting him along with six of his bodyguards in a dawn raid, sources said.

The arrest of al-Almi came as he faced charges of plotting the recent bombings that jolted Kirkuk and Salah Eddin province, including the bombings in Amerli last month with over 150 casualties, a police source said.

The governor of Salah el-Din, Hamad Hmoud al-Qesi, denied the accusations, describing them as groundless. He said that al-Almi was an Islamic scholar who has contributed towards spreading security and stability in central and northern Iraq.

The province was establishing contact with US forces to secure the release of al-Alami and his bodyguards, al-Almi's brother said.

Sheikh Mohammad Khudier, known as Abu al-Manar al-Alami, 50, is the sheikh of the Moderate Salafist Islamic movement in Iraq. Its military wing is the Islamic Army in Iraq (IAI), which targets US soldiers in most of its operations, according to the independent Voices of Iraq news agency.

He lost one of his legs while in the detention of the Iraqi security forces in the 1990s.

He has also survived many assassination attempts by armed groups, particularly because of his opposition to their military operations in residential areas.

Tikrit, capital of Salah Eddin province, lies 175 kilometres north of Baghdad.

In other news, the US military in Iraq reported Thursday that three US soldiers were killed and four others wounded in the past 24 hours in Iraq.

One was killed in a non-combat incident.

A US marine was killed Tuesday while conducting military operations in Anbar province, the US military in Iraq reported on Thursday.

Also in Anbar province, another US marine died on Tuesday in a non-combat incident, the US military said Thursday.

Baquba, the capital of Anbar province, is some 60 kilometres north of Baghdad.

In west Baghdad, a US soldier was killed when a roadside bomb detonated near their patrol, the US military announced Wednesday evening.

Four other soldiers were wounded in the attack which occurred Tuesday, the statement added.

Extremely tight security was, meanwhile, in place Thursday as hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims thronged northern Baghdad to commemorate the death of 8th-century Imam Mussa al-Kadhim.

Thousands of Iraqi military and police forces were deployed across the capital and on all roads leading to the Kadhimiya mosque in the northern district where the pilgrims were congregating.

The pilgrimage - which includes grieving rituals which were banned under late former dictator Saddam Hussein - marks the death in 799 of Musa al-Kadhim, the seventh of 12 imams revered by Shiites.

A curfew had already been imposed across the capital on Wednesday, with a security ban on weapons and mobile phones as thousands arrived on foot from southern and central provinces.

In 2005, more than 1,000 people were killed and 300 injured when rumours of an attack prompted a stampede on the Jisr al-Aiema (Bridge of Imams) that leads to the shrine. Also Thursday, Iraqi police forces detained a suicide bomber planning to detonate an explosive belt inside an outdoor market in Baquba, 60 kilometres north of Baghdad Thursday, a police source said.