Iraqi health official detained
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi and U.S. security forces Thursday launched a crackdown on the web of patronage that sustains radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, detaining a high-level Iraqi official in connection with the killings of Health Ministry officials and the diversion of millions of dollars to a Shiite Muslim militia.
Iraqi special forces, backed by U.S. troops, stormed the health complex in downtown Baghdad, detaining Deputy Minister Hakim Zamili, an al-Sadr loyalist.
It was the second raid of the Health Ministry in six months but the first high-profile arrest.
“This is the first, visible big fish,” an American adviser to the Iraqi military said after Zamili’s arrest. “It’s one to watch. It has to be the beginning of the housecleaning.”
U.S. military officials say al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army is one of the deadliest hazards in Iraq, killing thousands of civilians and troops.
Al-Sadr has built his stature by controlling seats in parliament and gunmen on the street. His hold on key service branches with large budgets, such as the health and transportation ministries, provides him with patronage powers for his followers.
Thursday’s arrest of Zamili sparked protest among Shiite lawmakers affiliated with al-Sadr, who described it as an unlawful kidnapping and an attack on the “dignity of the Iraqis.”
The Ministry of Health is first among the ministries controlled by al-Sadr, and controlling the ministry means controlling not only the hundreds of gunmen who guard the gates but also a billion-dollar budget and thousands of jobs.
U.S. advisers no longer visit the rundown ministry in downtown Baghdad. Even for Americans, who typically travel in cocoons of security, the threat level is too high, according to the adviser.
Although the U.S. military’s statement on Thursday’s raid did not name Zamili directly, it identified him as a “senior Ministry of Health official” and said the detainee was linked to the killing of Ali Mahdawi, a health director from a Sunni-dominated province, who was kidnapped from the ministry in June.
Health Minister Ali Shammari, a Shiite, called the raid a “violation of the sovereignty of Iraq.”
Around the country, violence continued with a car bomb killing 15 in Aziziya, southeast of Baghdad, and mortars killing an additional seven in Babil province, south of the capital. Shootings, bombings and mortars killed at least 52 others around the country, authorities said.
The U.S. military announced the death of four Marines in Anbar province, saying they died in separate attacks Wednesday. On Thursday, three U.S. soldiers were killed in fighting in the same province, the military said today.
Also today, the military reporteda U.S. airstrike that killed eight suspected terrorists and destroyed a building south of Baghdad on Thursday night.