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.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would make a decision about how the US government would refer to the body of water commonly known as the Persian Gulf when he visits Arab states next week. Trump told reporters at the White House that he expects his hosts in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will ask him about the US officially calling the waterway the Arabian Gulf or Gulf of Arabia. “They’re going to ask me about that when I get there, and I’ll have to make a decision,” Trump said. “I don’t want to hurt anybody’s
RSS