US forces release Iraqi cleric's aide

BAGHDAD, Oct 18 (Reuters) The US military today released a senior aide to a pro-government Shi'ite cleric and militia leader after the Iraqi government requested he be freed, the US military and the Iraqi government said today.

Sheikh Mazin al-Saedi, an aide to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, had been detained by US military forces during a raid on his Baghdad house yesterday along with four men.

''He has been released at the request of the government of Iraq,'' Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver, a spokesman for the US military, told Reuters.

US commanders and officials have been demanding that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki rein in militias and their networks, blamed for some of the worst sectarian violence gripping Iraq.

Garver said Saedi had been detained in security operations US forces are conducting in Baghdad. He would not say if Saedi, who heads Sadr's office in the Baghdad neighbourhood of Shula, had been detained on suspicion of any particular crime.

''At this point we are not making more comments,'' he said.

''The two governments have been discussing the issue.'' In background briefings and in private conversations, US commanders and US government officials have expressed growing frustration at Maliki's inaction against militias.

Maliki, a Shi'ite, has pledged to deal with militias but disbanding them could put him in a precarious situation because they are tied to political parties in his coalition.

Sadr, who heads the Mehdi Army militia that has launched two uprisings against US forces, controls a large bloc of seats in parliament, which makes Maliki dependent on Sadr's support.

News of Saedi's release came as Maliki was in the holy city of Najaf meeting Sadr and other Shi'ite religious leaders.

Asked about the arrest of Saedi and his later release by the Americans, Maliki was vague in his answers.

''We are trying to find political solutions for all crises and that will terminate all detentions and all tension so that things go back to normal,'' he told a news conference, standing with Sadr.

In an operation codenamed ''Together Forward,'' US-led forces have conducted a series of sweeps in several Baghdad neighbourhoods, but have so far not entered Sadr City, a sprawling suburb that is the powerbase of Sadr and his militias.

In an interview with an American newspaper at the weekend, Maliki said he was opposed to launching sweeps in Sadr City.

''We have told the Americans that we don't mind targeting a Mehdi Army cell inside Sadr City. But the way the multinational forces are thinking of confronting this issue will destroy an entire neighborhood,'' he told the USA Today.

REUTERS AB VV2006