Iraq's deputy health minister arrested
Source: Reuters
By Mariam Karouny BAGHDAD, Feb 8 (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces detained Iraq's deputy health minister on Thursday, a senior member of a radical Shi'ite political group, in the first major sign that a security crackdown in Baghdad was under way. The U.S. military, without naming anyone, said a senior Health Ministry official had been detained on suspicion of infiltrating rogue members of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia into the ministry. Ministry officials and witnesses said deputy Health Minister Hakim Zamili, from Sadr's movement, was detained during the raid by U.S. and Iraqi forces on the Health Ministry in Baghdad. "He is suspected of funding rogue JAM through large-scale employment of militia members," a U.S. military statement said, using the acronym for the militia. "These militia members are reported to target Iraqi civilians using MoH (Health Ministry) facilities and services for sectarian kidnapping and murder. The suspect's corruption is believed to have funnelled millions of U.S. dollars into rogue JAM." Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, has pledged to tackle both Shi'ite and Sunni militants in the Baghdad offensive. Critics say a previous offensive failed because he avoided going after Shi'ite militias tied to parties in his coalition. Zamili's brother, Waleed, a Health Ministry employee, denied the accusations. "When they arrest anyone from the Sadr movement they make these sorts of accusations," he told Reuters. The U.S. military has stepped up operations against some Sadr supporters and the Mehdi Army, which the U.S. military accuses of widespread sectarian kidnappings and killings. The detention came a day after the U.S. military said the long-awaited Baghdad offensive had begun, seen as a final attempt to halt Iraq's slide toward all-out civil war. An official in Sadr's political movement accused the U.S. military of trying to provoke a confrontation and urged the Iraqi government to take immediate action to free the official. BIND FOR MALIKI? Zamili's arrest could put Maliki in a bind because of his reliance on Sadr for political support in parliament. There was no immediate comment from Maliki's office. "At around 9 a.m. today, American forces accompanied by Iraqi forces broke into the ministry, forced the guards to lie on the floor and took Zamili," said Qassem Allawi, the Health Ministry spokesman. "All the employees were terrified because they were breaking doors and smashing things. Some of the employees ran to the streets." Iraqi and U.S. forces have seized or killed hundreds of followers of Sadr in recent weeks. In January, the U.S. military arrested Sadr's spokesman in Baghdad, Sheikh Abdul Hadi al- Darraji. "Zamili is in the government. Maliki should not just keep watching. Maybe tomorrow they will arrest him too," Abdel Mahdi al-Matiri, an official in Sadr's movement, told Reuters. In fresh violence, a car bomb killed 17 people in a market in a mainly Shi'ite town south of Baghdad and U.S. forces killed 13 insurgents in an air strike on two suspected foreign fighter safe houses west of the capital. A car bomb killed six people and wounded 10 in Baghdad. The crackdown was announced by Maliki nearly a month ago. U.S. President George W. Bush has committed 17,500 more troops to the Baghdad push. On Thursday, new checkpoints manned by Iraqi forces were thrown up in some Baghdad districts and Iraqi troops rolled out barbed wire and guarded hospitals. U.S. officials on Thursday said a helicopter operated by a private security firm came down in Iraq last week, an incident that marks the sixth downing of a helicopter in three weeks. Reports of the Jan. 31 incident, in which no one was killed, come a day after seven crew members and passengers aboard a U.S. Marine helicopter were killed when it crashed near Baghdad, possibly after being hit by ground fire. The U.S. military, concerned that militants have changed tactics or are using more sophisticated weapons, has said it is adjusting its tactics. (Additional reporting by Assel Kami and Ross Colvin)
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