Top aide to Muqtada al-Sadr killed in Iraqi raid

A top aide to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was killed in a raid by US troops Wednesday in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, an Iraqi lawmaker said.

The US military, however, said American troops participated in a raid led by Iraqi forces that led to the death of a man with the same name as the aide, Sahib al-Amiri. The military described al-Amiri as a criminal involved in the use of roadside bombs.

Nassar al-Rubaie, the head of al-Sadr's bloc in parliament, said al-Amiri was killed when American forces entered his home at dawn.

"We offer our condolences to the Iraqi people and to the al-Sadr movement for the killing of Sahib al-Amiri, one of al-Sadr's prominent figures," al-Rubaie said. Later Wednesday, mourners carried al-Amiri's coffin, draped in an Iraqi flag, on a funeral procession through downtown Najaf.