| A militant group threatened in footage broadcast Friday to kill four policemen from the southern city of Najaf after accusing them of acting against radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The group, calling itself "The Joint Forces to Get Rid of Spies," said it kidnapped the four policemen from Najaf and warned that if authorities do not issue a statement ceasing activities against al-Sadr and his followers they would be killed within 72 hours. It did not specify what sort of activities were problematic. The pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera aired footage showing the four men sitting on the floor as four masked armed men stood behind them. The holy city of Najaf witnessed three weeks of clashes between al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and U.S. and Iraqi troops last month. The fighting ended late August with a peace deal brokered by Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. On Thursday, Iraq troops entered al-Sadr's office in Najaf for the first time since the fighting ended in a raid seen as a show of force against the radical cleric. No weapons were found. |