A senior aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr _ who was arrested by U.S. troops in 2004 as one of the leaders of a mass Shiite uprising _ was assassinated Friday near his home in the holy city of Najaf, officials said, according to AP. Riyadh al-Nouri, the director of al-Sadr's office in Najaf and his brother-in-law, was gunned down as he drove home after attending Friday prayers in the adjacent city of Kufa, a police officer and a local Sadrist official said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, reported the dpa. Authorities immediately announced a citywide curfew, and security forces were seen deploying on the streets after the killing, which threatened to raise tensions amid a violent standoff between al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and the Iraqi government. An overnight curfew also was announced in the southern Shiite city of Hillah.
