Wanted Iraqi Shiite cleric barricades himself in holy mosque (Sadr) [View All]

KUFA, Iraq (AFP) - Iraqi Shiite radical Moqtada Sadr was barricaded inside a mosque in this shrine city as the US-led coalition announced a warrant for his arrest for the murder of a rival cleric last year.

Sadr was holed up inside the holy Kufa mosque, where centuries earlier the founder of Shiism, Imam Ali, was killed in 661 AD, even before the coalition announced a warrant was out for the defiant young leader.

"He will not be arrested, we will not allow his arrest, not by the Americans, not by the British and not by anyone else," Hazem al-Araji, director of Sadr's office in Kadhimiya, a Shiite district of the capital, told AFP.

"We will be human shields for his protection," he added.

Top coalition spokesman Dan Senor said Sadr's arrest warrant had been issued several months ago in connection with the murder of Abdul Majid Khoei, who had been flown in to Iraq by the coalition last year to act as a moderating force.

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