Anger in Iraq's Najaf after US kills Sadr aide

NAJAF, Iraq, Dec 27 (Reuters) Thousands of supporters of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched through the holy Iraqi city of Najaf in an angry funeral procession after a senior Sadr aide was killed by a US soldier today.

Chanting ''No to America'' and carrying placards decrying US occupation, mourners, including black-robed clerics, carried the coffin of Saheb al-Amiri through the streets.

Members of Sadr's group accused the Americans of provoking a confrontation and demanded a government inquiry.

Najaf, home to Iraq's top Shi'ite clerics, was the site of a 2004 rebellion against US forces by militias loyal to Sadr, who also has power bases in Baghdad.

Another uprising against US forces by Sadr Mehdi Army militias would be a major headache for the US military, which has 135,000 troops in a country gripped by Shi'ite-Sunni strife.

Sadr officials and US military commanders gave conflicting versions of the activities of Amiri.

Sadr officials said US forces stormed Amiri's home at dawn today and killed him in front of his wife and children.

They said Amiri was a lawyer who headed a charity for orphans and the poor and was not part of the Mehdi Army.

''What happened was a crime. It comes on top of other crimes committed by occupation forces in Iraq,'' Nassar al-Rubaei, head of the Sadr bloc in parliament, told reporters in Baghdad.

In Najaf, Sheikh Abdul-Razzes al-Malawi, a member of Sadr's office, said: ''US forces want to drag us into a confrontation, but we won't be dragged into it. However, we promise them there will be a reaction at the appropriate time.'' US military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said Amiri was an ''improvised explosive device facilitator'' and that he was implicated in a bomb attack on a police chief in October.

He said he was shot dead in his home near Najaf, during an Iraqi-led raid, by a US military adviser who saw Amiri point an assault rifle at an Iraqi soldier. He said US forces had ''tremendous amount of information'' on Amiri for some time.

''The purpose of going after him is because of the illegal activities that he was conducting, not because he was associated to any particular organisation,'' Caldwell told reporters.

US forces handed over security control of Najaf, , and its province to Iraqi forces this month and Caldwell said the raid was planned and executed by the Iraqi army with the assistance of eight American military advisers.

US commanders have put pressure on Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to crack down on Shi'ite militias, which have ties to his coalition. A Pentagon report this month said Mehdi Army militias were the biggest threat to Iraq's security.

The Sadr bloc, which comprises 30 members of parliament and six cabinet ministers, have been boycotting Maliki's government since he met US President George W Bush last month.

The boycott and sectarian attacks blamed on militias have put the future of Maliki's government at risk and talks have been under way between Shi'ite Alliance officials and top clerics in Najaf to save the fractious coalition.

Reuters SP VP2345