Troops detain dozens in Shiite areas of Baghdad

Source: AFP

Troops detain dozens in Shiite areas of Baghdad

Sat May 24, 4:47 AM ET

Iraqi and US troops detained dozens of people in search operations in two Shiite neighbourhoods of southwest Baghdad on Saturday, witnesses said.

A spokesman for the Shiite radical movement of anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr put the number held at more than 400.

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"The Iraqi and US forces raided a mosque in Al-Amal as well as a neighbouring market and rounded up dozens of people, some of them elderly men or teenagers," Al-Amal resident, Hazem Mohammed, 27, told AFP.

"My three brothers, one of whom's only 12, were picked up and so was my cousin," Mohammed said, adding that he had only narrowly escaped detention by the Iraqi troops himself.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080524/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestbaghdad_080524084738