US forces detain son of top Iraqi Shi'ite leader

KUT, Iraq, Feb 23 (Reuters) US troops detained the eldest son of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, one of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite leaders, at an Iraqi checkpoint on the Iranian border today, Iraqi security force officials said.

Washington has accused Iran of fuelling violence in Iraq and has expressed discomfort at historic links between Tehran and Hakim's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which was based in Iran during Saddam Hussein's rule.

Ammar Hakim's convoy was stopped at the Badrah checkpoint in Wasit province as he returned from Iran, the Iraqi security officials and a senior aide to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim said. It was not immediately clear why he had been detained.

The security officials said US forces had taken him to Forward Operating Base Delta, a US camp in near Kut, capital of Wasit province.

US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver said he was checking the report. ''He was arrested with three of his bodyguards, who were also assaulted. Their weapons were confiscated even though they had permits for them,'' the aide to Abdul-Aziz Hakim told Reuters.

''The Americans have been apologising and saying it was a mistake and that they have released him. But that is not true.'' The governor of Wasit province, Latif Hamid Tarfa, said Hakim was expected to be released shortly.

Education Minister Khodair al-Khozaei said the government would seek Hakim's release.

''He is not only the son of Hakim, he is a religious figure and well-known politician ... There will definitely be popular reactions too,'' he told Dubai-based Al Arabiya television.

''More than anybody else, it is the Americans who are violating the security plan through their cowboy methods,'' he said.

Iraq closed its borders with Iran and Syria for 72 hours last week. US officials said security at checkpoints was being improved to check the flow of weapons and foreign fighters.

INFLUENTIAL FIGURE SCIRI was founded in Iran in 1982. Its armed wing, the Badr Organisation, fought with Iran in the 1980-88 war against Saddam. SCIRI is the biggest party in Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's national unity cabinet.

Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim was a guest of US President George W Bush at the White House last December, when the two held talks on how to curb sectarian violence in Iraq.

Ammar Hakim, in his mid-30s, is an influential member of the ruling Shi'ite Alliance in his own right and is secretary general of a humanitarian charity set up by SCIRI.

A colonel in the Iraqi border guards based in Kut said US soldiers arrested him at gunpoint and handcuffed him before being taken away. A colonel in the 8th Division of the Iraqi Army confirmed his detention.

The border guard colonel said six US Humvee armoured vehicles reached the border crossing at around noon (0900 GMT) and were checking all vehicles entering Iraq. When Ammar Hakim's convoy came through around 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) they immediately detained him.

US forces have in recent months arrested a number of Iranians in Iraq, including several who were seized at Abdul Aziz Hakim's compound in Baghdad. They were later released.

Iraqi and US troops this month launched a major crackdown on militants in Baghdad, vowing to tackle Shi'ite militias with as much determination as Sunni insurgents.

Three US soldiers were killed in combat on Thursday in Iraq's volatile western Anbar province, the US military said in a statement on Friday.

It gave no details of the incident, but Anbar is the main stronghold of Sunni Arab insurgents fighting US forces.

Thursday's deaths brought to 3,154 the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.

Seventy soldiers have died so far this month.

REUTERS SAM RK2300