Al-Sadr holds U.S. forces responsible for lawmaker’s killing

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday held the U.S. forces responsible for the killing of Sadrist lawmaker Saleh al-Auqaeili, calling the Iraqi government to investigate the incident. One of al-Sadr’s aides read out a statement from the cleric mourning al-Auqaeili as a martyr. “The hand of heinous occupation and terrorism assassinated another martyr of freedom,” said the statement, read out by al-Sadr aide Jalil al-Sarkhi and received by IraqiNews.com. It praised al-Auqaeili for dedicating himself to “get the occupier outside Iraq” and refusing to sign a long-term agreement with U.S.-led forces. The Sadrists oppose negotiations for a security agreement that would extend the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq beyond this year. Al-Auqaeili was traveling in a convoy with other Shiite lawmakers on Thursday when a roadside bomb struck it in eastern Baghdad. He died later at a hospital. Sadrist spokesman Ahmed al-Massoudi said Thursday that “occupation forces sent us a message by staging this attack because of our stance against the agreement.” The office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said it would form an investigative committee to examine the circumstances of the attack. It pledged to arrest al-Auqaeili’s killers and put them on trial, according to a statement late Thursday. SH (S) 1