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Iraqi officer arrests related to 'terror': general
2008-12-18
BAGHDAD (AFP) - A top Iraqi general said on Thursday that security forces reportedly arrested in connection with an attempted coup were actually detained on suspicion of aiding "terrorism." "The office of the commanding general of the armed forces announces the arrest of 24 officers from the ministries of interior and defence who have nothing to do with an attempted coup," said a statement from General Qasem Atta, spokesman for Iraq's military command. Earlier an unidentified senior interior ministry official said almost 40 policemen were in custody accused of plotting a coup against the Shiite-led government and trying to bring the Baath Party of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein back to power. Atta said the arrests were carried out "following information that certain officers have aided terrorist activity, outlaws and henchmen from the former regime." The interior ministry official had said earlier that 37 traffic policemen "and seven police charged with security at the interior ministry have been detained for an attempted coup." The interior ministry said in a statement that members of other security-linked ministries were among those arrested. Earlier, a security official announced the arrest of 50 interior ministry staff including senior officials over a plot against the government headed by Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. "They were linked to the Al-Awda (The Return), a clandestine group that was working to bring the Baath Party back into power," the official said. Al-Awda first surfaced in June 2003 just three months after the launch of the US-led invasion that ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and his feared ruling Baath Party regime. It groups former members of the Baath party, Saddam's former elite Republican Guard and his security services, which were dismantled in the aftermath of the war. The interior ministry's intelligence chief General Ahmad Abul Raghif accused regional countries of involvement. "We have taken very serious measures to counter the influence of regional countries which are hostile to Iraq and seek to damage our security, especially the interior ministry," he said. News of the arrests comes just days after a farewell visit to Iraq by US President George W. Bush, who met Maliki during his trip. The New York Times reported on Thursday that a top interior ministry official said those linked to Al-Awda paid bribes to officers to recruit them, and that substantial amounts of money were found in raids. Reacting to the alleged coup reports, Selim Abullah, spokesman for Sunni party the Iraqi Concord Front, said his group had not been given any "clear explanation on the arrests or on the people arrested." Liwaa Smaissim, head of the political office of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, was sceptical that a coup was being planned. "We are under occupation and it's impossible to believe in this type of story unless the coup was supported by the occupiers who want to change the regime," he said. But an MP with the dominant Shiite coalition, Abbas al-Bayati, said the arrests were a success for the intelligence services against continued efforts by "the enemies of Iraq to damage the democratic process." Maliki's critics have accused the prime minister of arresting political enemies to consolidate his power ahead of provincial elections due at the end of January, the New York Times said. Maliki himself was persecuted by Saddam's Sunni-led regime, but five years after the invasion hundreds of members of the Baath party have returned to public life. It followed the approval in January of a controversial law to allow the return of certain former Baathists to government posts. The initiative was seen as a way to unite Iraq's rival factions, and a means to reverse what is widely seen as one of the huge blunders committed by the US occupiers in post-Saddam Iraq. The decision by then head of the US adminstration Paul Bremer to disband the Iraqi army and sack all Baathists from the government led to the rise of a deadly insurgency that has since claimed tens of thousands of lives.
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