Militia leader's arrest sets up test for Iraq PM

[ECH1969]

The Shiite movement loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Al Sadr threatened Tuesday to hold demonstrations in Baghdad, in a new test to the authority of Iraq's beleaguered government.

Sadr's party reacted with fury to the alleged arrest of one of its top officials, whom they said was seized overnight by US forces, and vowed to stage protests in volatile west Baghdad, the scene of recent sectarian violence.

The Sadr movement's military wing is the feared Mehdi Army, one of the powerful militias that Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki has promised to disarm amid a rising wave of inter-communal bloodshed.

"The government is determined to fight the armed groups by all political or military means," Maliki's cabinet office said Tuesday. "It will not hesitate to strike whoever tries to violate the security of the country and threaten the civil peace," the statement added.

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20061017-091840-2854r