Iraq’s largest Sunni party on Tuesday accused government security forces of sectarian bias after Iraqi soldiers arrested a Sunni university president and a Sunni provincial council member in raids northeast of Baghdad.
The raids in Diyala province follow a crackdown there against US-backed Sunni Arab volunteers who turned against al-Qaeda and joined the fight against the terror movement.
Those moves are likely to heighten Sunni suspicions about the Shiite-led national government at a time when the US believed it was making progress in tamping down sectarian hatred that plunged the country to the brink of all-out civil war two years ago.
The raids occurred before dawn Tuesday when Iraqi troops backed by US helicopters swooped down on the provincial government complex in downtown Baqubah, capital of Diyala, about 56km northeast of Baghdad.
Troops stormed the office of the provincial governor, Raad Rashid al-Tamimi, triggering a gunfight that killed the governor’s secretary and wounded four of his guards, police said.
The Sunni head of the provincial council’s security committee, Hussein al-Zubaidi, was arrested, police said.
Later, troops raided the home of the Sunni president of Diyala University, Nazar al-Khafaji, handcuffed him, placed a hood over his head and led him away into custody, his nephew Ismail Ibrahim Sabi said.
Troops also seized three computers and several books, said Sabi, who was in his uncle’s house at the time and works as his driver.
Governor al-Tamimi is a Shiite, but Sunni politicians believed both the raid on the governor’s office and arrest of the university president were part of a crackdown against Sunni Arabs, the largest community in the province.
The Iraqi Islamic Party, the country’s largest Sunni faction, said in a statement that the raids were a sign that “sectarianism remains the sole motive of the security forces,” which are mostly Shiite.
A party statement denounced “these irresponsible acts” and said it would not remain silent in the face of “human rights violations and the breach of freedom.”
The 41-member provincial council demanded an investigation into the raids and said it was suspending its activities in the meantime.
Council chief Ibrahim Bajilan said the raids were a “barbaric act” by troops “who did not respect the law.”
But a senior Iraqi army officer who took part in the raid said troops carried arrest warrants for both the university president and the head of the security committee.
Al-Kafaji, the university president, was believed to be behind the assassination of professors and al-Zubaidi was also suspected of a role in killings, the officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.
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