BAGHDAD (AFP) — Mourners shouted anti-American slogans as gunfire gripped the Baghdad Shiite district of Sadr City ahead of the burial on Friday of a radical member of parliament killed in a roadside bombing.
Residents said heavy firing was heard in Sadr City where Iraqi troops and the US military stepped up security after Thursday's bombing that killed 41-year-old Shiite MP Saleh al-Ogayly.
"Americans get out. Americans get out," shouted mourners as relatives hugged each other and wept while the wooden coffin of Ogayly was brought out of his home early on Friday draped in the tri-colour Iraqi flag.
His Shiite radical faction blamed the killing on the US military and said Ogayly had been a vociferous critic of the proposed military pact between the Shiite-led government of Premier Nuri al-Maliki and the Americans.
"What happened indicates that the occupation (US forces) was behind the attack," said a spokesman for the movement's leader, anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
"He has criticised severely the weakest points in the (US) agreement which led to the embarrassment of the Americans," the spokesman Sheikh Salah told AFP in the central shrine city of Najaf.
"So we see that it was in their interest to get rid of Ogayly."
The radicals are strongly opposed to the proposed Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) which would provide the legal basis for a US troop presence beyond December when a UN mandate runs out.
Obeidi said Ogayly was a key figure in negotiations with the government on the SOFA.
His coffin was carried by mourners to the local office of the Sadr movement for supporters to pay their last respects.
The coffin was then placed on a white sports utility vehicle to be driven to the main Shiite cemetery in Najaf.
Iraqi security officials said there were no casualties from the overnight gunfire in Sadr City and that the shooting died down as US troops took up positions at the entrance to the impoverished district where two million people live.
"There was shooting at Iraqi forces, but no casualties," a security official said. "Buildings were hit."
An AFP correspondent saw spent bullet casings and remains of flares in the neighbourhood on Friday. Iraqi security forces were out in force.
Residents said they heard US helicopters over the area while American soldiers were seen at the main entrance to the Shiite district, site of heavy fighting between US troops and Sadr's Mahdi Army militia in March and April.
Hundreds died before a ceasefire went into effect in May. Despite the truce, the district has seen frequent violence.
Thursday's slaying of Ogayly was condemned by Prime Minister Maliki who vowed to capture the assassins and ordered a top-level investigation.
Maliki said he appointed a panel headed by Interior Minister Jawad Bolani to probe the killing, the first Iraqi MP to be killed in 18 months.
"We reaffirm our determination to get at the hotbeds of terrorism and crime, and arrest and prosecute the killers and bring them to justice," the prime minister said in a statement on Thursday night.
The assassination was also strongly condemned by US ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, and General Raymond Odierno, the commander of US forces in Iraq.
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