From 2nd left, Muqtada al-Sadr's aide Hazim al-Araji, Muqtada al-Sadr's aide Abdul-Hadi al-Daraji, Senior Sunni Cleric Abdul Salam al-Kubaisi, and Muqtada al-Sadr's aide Nasir al-Saidi leave a meeting between the two religious groups at Baghdad's Sunni Um al-Qura mosque in Iraq Sunday, May 22, 2005. Man at left is unidentified. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
Shiite's Aides Meet Sunnis to Ease Tension
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq May 22, 2005 — Aides of a radical Shiite cleric met on Sunday with a key Sunni group seeking to ease sectarian tensions in Iraq, while gunmen killed a top trade ministry official as a spree of violence that followed the announcement of a new government entered its fourth week.
Iraqi authorities released Ghazi Hammud al-Obeidi, one of the most-wanted officials from Saddam Hussein's former regime, because he is apparently terminally ill, Justice Minister Abdel Hussein Shandal and the suspect's lawyer said Sunday.
Iraq's government also said it had captured a "terrorist" close to the network of militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who had planned car bomb attacks and rigged booby-trapped cars for foreign fighters.
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Separately, three Romanian journalists and their Iraqi-American guide who had been held hostage for nearly two months in Iraq were released.
Senior aides of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr met a key Sunni group in a bid to soothe tensions that have flared amid violence that has killed at least 550 people, including 10 Shiite and Sunni clerics, since the new Shiite-dominated government was announced on April 28. More