IRAQ U.S. captures key aide to cleric

Tests confirmed a roadside bomb contained sarin.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. troops captured a key lieutenant of radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr during overnight clashes in Najaf that killed 24 people and wounded nearly 50, hospital and militia officials said.
Riyadh al-Nouri, al-Sadr's brother-in-law, offered no resistance when American troops raided his home during a series of clashes in this Shiite holy city, according to Azhar al-Kinani, a staffer in al-Sadr's office in Najaf.
The capture of al-Nouri would be a major blow to al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army, which has been battling coalition forces since early April. Al-Sadr launched his uprising in response to a crackdown by coalition authorities who announced an arrest warrant against him in the April 2003 assassination of a moderate cleric in Najaf.
Al-Nouri was also sought in the 2003 killing.
Sarin in bomb
Laboratory tests have confirmed that the chemical weapon sarin was in the remains of a roadside bomb found in Baghdad earlier this month, government officials say.
Two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday the finding verifies preliminary field tests that had indicated the deadly nerve agent was in the bomb.
Officials are still investigating the origin of the bomb, which was made from an artillery shell designed to disperse chemicals on the battlefield. Finding where it came from is a priority for the U.S. military, a defense official familiar with the discovery said Tuesday.
Some analysts worry the 155-millimeter artillery shell, found May 15, may be part of a larger stockpile of Iraqi chemical weapons now in the hands of insurgents, but no more have turned up. Several military officials have speculated that the shell may have been an older one that predated the 1991 Gulf War.
U.S. military officials also don't know whether the bombers were aware that they had a chemical weapon because the shell bore no labels to indicate it was anything except a normal explosive shell, the type used to make scores of roadside bombs in Iraq.
Russians killed
Masked gunmen opened fire today on a convoy taking Russian technicians to work at a Baghdad power station, killing two and wounding at least five, Iraqi and Russian officials said. It was the latest attack on employees with the Interenergoservis company.
Elsewhere, the Polish command said a coalition base outside Karbala, 50 miles north of Najaf, came under mortar fire late Tuesday. Demolition teams also defused three roadside bombs in the area, a spokesman for the Polish-led multinational force said today.
The mortar rounds were fired at Camp Kilo, where mostly Bulgarian troops are based, Maj. Slawomir Walenczykowski said. The attack resulted in no injuries or damage.
Fighting escalated in Shiite areas south of Baghdad in early April after al-Sadr launched an uprising against the U.S.-run occupation.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration is hoping a new U.N. resolution will induce fence-sitting governments -- maybe even some Arab states -- to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq.
So far, though, the United States has few takers.
"It remains to be seen," Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday.
The uncertainty over troops underscores one of the many pieces of unfinished business as the United States begins the final push toward handing over political control to an interim Iraqi government by June 30. The White House said Tuesday the new Iraqi leaders will be named by early next week.