United States-backed Iraqi troops arrested the Iraq Health Ministry’s second highest official on Thursday, charging that he murdered opponents and funnelled million of dollars to rogue Shi’ite militia groups.
”Special Iraqi Army Forces captured a senior Ministry of Health official today [Thursday] who is suspected of being a central figure in alleged corruption and rogue Jaysh al-Mahdi infiltration of the ministry,” a US statement said.
Jaysh al-Mahdi (JAM) is the Arabic term for the Mahdi Army, a powerful militia group loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
It did not specifically name Hakim al-Zamili, deputy secretary at the Health Ministry, who was arrested by a joint Iraqi-US force, ministry spokesperson Qassim Allawi said.
The official ”is suspected in the deaths of several ministry officials”, including its director general in the violent province of Diyala, and in kickback schemes linked to ministry contracts, according to the US statement.
He is also accused of employing a large number of Mahdi Army militiamen at the ministry, who use its vehicles and even ambulances to kidnap and kill Sunni Arabs.
In Iraq’s government of national unity the Health Ministry has been assigned to Sadr’s party, which US authorities say backs death squads in the bitter sectarian violence gripping Iraq.
”The suspect’s corruption is believed to have funnelled millions of US dollars into rogue JAM,” the military said.
Meanwhile, Iraqi and US forces swept through Baghdad as part of a plan to quell the sectarian violence, but another 36 people were killed and dozens wounded in a string of attacks in several parts of the country.
US forces killed 13 fighters in an air strike on a ”senior foreign fighter facilitator” near the western district of Ameriya, a US statement said.
Five people were arrested in the raid against a network set up to aid foreign militants that come to Iraq to attack US-led forces.
The crackdown failed to halt the violence, however, with security officials and medics reporting at least 20 people killed and 45 wounded by a car bomb in al-Aziziya, 70km south-east of Baghdad on Thursday.
Another car bomb in a predominantly Shi’ite district in the eastern part of Baghdad killed 10 people and wounded another 10.
The al-Aziziya attack took place in the morning, while the market was packed, a security source said.
It was the first attack in the Shi’ite town, but late Wednesday a double bomb attack killed seven people and wounded 12 others in Suweira, which lies 20km to the north.
In Baquba, north-east of Baghdad, meanwhile, four police officers and a civilian died during an attack on a patrol Thursday, a security source said.
The latest violence came as Iraqi and US troops spread across the capital as part of a long-awaited security plan to curb bloodshed that has killed tens of thousands across the country in the past year.
On Wednesday, US military spokesperson Major General William Caldwell said that implementation of the Baghdad stabilisation plan was now fully under way.
”The plan is being fully implemented as we speak,” he told reporters, adding that Iraqi commander Lieutenant General Abboud Qanbar was in charge of the operation, eventually expected to involve about 80 000 Iraqi and US troops.
Security was stepped up across the city, which appeared to suffer less violence than in past days.
But a US spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Chris Garver, warned that ”one day does not equal a trend”.
”We really need to take a look at several days in a row, and see if it stays down that low, which hopefully it will,” he added.
The Iraqi government has not yet announced the start of the offensive, but the newspaper Az-Zaman noted that six million primary and secondary school students were sitting for mid-year exams across the country, and a slew of checkpoints would make that process much more difficult.
The exams run until on February 15.
US Major General Kenneth Hunzeker, who oversees training of Iraqi police, said each of Baghdad’s nine administrative districts would host an Iraqi army brigade along with Iraqi police forces and a US battalion.
The brigades typically number 5 000 or so men, while a battalion generally comprises between 300 and 500 troops. — AFP
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