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Iraqi government pans US arrests

The Iraqi government protested yesterday after US forces arrested a number of Iranian officials in Baghdad because they were allegedly planning to incite attacks in the war-torn country.

"Two people who were invited by the president to Iraq have now been apprehended by the Americans and the president is unhappy with the arrests," said Hiwa Osman, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's media adviser.

"The invitation was within the framework of an agreement between Iran and Iraq to improve the security situation," he said.

Separately, a leading Shiite lawmaker and imam, Sheikh Jalal Eddin al-Saghir of the Baratha Mosque, said that two Iranian diplomats had also been seized by US forces in Baghdad on Thursday, but were later released.

"Two diplomats from the Iranian embassy came to see me to offer me condolences on the death of my mother," he said.

"After they left the mosque and were travelling back to the embassy they were arrested by the Americans, with two of their guards. I don't know why. I later heard that they had been released," he said.

Confirmation of the arrests came after the New York Times, citing senior US officials, reported that several Iranians were arrested by US forces in Iraq last week on suspicion of planning attacks on Iraqi troops.

"We continue to work with the government of Iraq on the status of the detainees," Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, told the Times, according to its report.

Iraq's national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie refused to comment on the arrests, which the Times reported had put strain on the relationship between the Iraqi government and its US allies.

A spokesman for the US embassy also declined to comment, while the US-led military coalition referred inquiries to the Pentagon.

US commanders in Iraq regularly accuse Iran of fomenting unrest in its troubled neighbor, but the Baghdad government has pursued a policy of closer security ties with Tehran.

According to White House officials cited in the Times report, the Iranians include two "senior military officials" with links to an Iranian Republican Guard unit that trains Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah guerrilla movement.

Senior US officials said that four Iranians are in US custody.

If authorities produce evidence against the detainees it could be the first proof of their longstanding charge that Iranian agents are fomenting violence in Iraq.

The arrests come amid diplomatic tension between Iran, the US and the international community after the UN Security Council voted to impose sanctions on Iran's nuclear program.

In response to the vote, Iran defiantly vowed to start work immediately on drastically expanding its capacity to enrich uranium.

Washington accuses Iran of pursuing the development of nuclear weapons, a charge vehemently denied by the oil-rich Islamic republic, which says it only wants to provide atomic energy to a growing population.

Tehran has yet to make any public comment on the Baghdad arrests.

Several of the Shiite parties that have risen to power in Iraq since the downfall of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein have ties to Iran.

According to the Times report, some of the Iranians were arrested at the home of Hadi al-Ameri, a senior council official.

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