Print

Mail

wiki links

Police arrest 15 Shiite activists

A US Army handout photo made available on Friday shows actress Angelina Jolie having lunch with US Marine Corporal Christopher Lewis during her visit to Baghdad on Thursday as an ambassador for the UN High Commission for Refugees. Jolie also met with US General David Patraeus and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. PHOTO: EPA

Iraqi police arrested 15 Shiite activists yesterday in early morning raids south of Baghdad, and five US soldiers were killed in two roadside bombings, officials said.

The US troops were killed on Friday -- four in Baghdad and one in Tamim Province, the military said. At least 3,958 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003, an Associated Press count shows.

Yesterday marked a third day of US and Iraqi operations in an area that includes several Shiite holy cities -- raising tension with some Shiite tribesmen and fighters who have pledged to halt attacks. Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered a six-month ceasefire for his Mehdi Army militia, but some members have broken away and violated the pledge which expires later this month.

US and Iraqi forces say they are targeting rogue, criminal elements of his and other militias. But several Shiite imams, during Friday prayers, suggested Iraqi forces were taking advantage of the ceasefire to crack down on rival groups.

Al-Sadr has threatened not to extend his ceasefire unless the government purges rival Shiite militiamen he alleges have infiltrated the security forces and are targeting his followers.

Yesterday's arrests took place in Karbala, a Shiite holy city 80km south of Baghdad, where Shiite Islam's two most revered saints are buried.

Rahman Mshawi, spokesman for Karbala police, said four of the 15 suspects are members of the Iraq-based People's Mujahidin Organization of Iran, or Mujahidin Khalq.

The group was founded in the late 1960s and fled to Iraq in the early 1980s after it fell out with the clerical regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

During former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's rule, the group used Iraq as a base for operations against the Iranian government. Thousands of its members remain in Iraq, and both the US and Iraq consider the Khalq a terrorist group.

Mshawi said five other detainees belong to a Shiite cult group. He did not elaborate or give details about the group.

The remaining six suspects were "wanted men," Mshawi said.

Meanwhile north of Baghdad, Iraqi police said a local al-Qaeda in Iraq leader was killed in his home, and 12 decomposed bodies were discovered in a mass grave.

Abu Omar al-Dori resisted police for about an hour before he was killed around 4am in his house in downtown Samarra, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. Samarra is a mostly Sunni town about 95km north of the Iraqi capital.

According to Iraqi police, al-Dori had been assigned to lead al-Qaeda in Iraq operations in Samarra just one week ago. It was unclear whether his predecessor was killed or captured.

Farther east near Baqubah, a joint patrol of Iraqi police and soldiers found a mass grave with 12 bodies, including three of women, according to police and morgue officials. The bodies were found in the al-Ehaimer area on the outskirts of Baqubah.

The US military had no immediate comment on either incident.

Meanwhile, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani traveled yesterday to Najaf, another Shiite holy city south of Baghdad, to meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most prominent cleric. It was unclear whether the meeting was scheduled in light of the recent Shiite arrests.
This story has been viewed 3531 times.