Police arrest assassination plotters

Iraqi police have arrested eight Sunni Arabs in the northern city of Kirkuk for allegedly plotting to assassinate the investigating judge who prepared the case against Saddam Hussein, a senior police commander said Sunday.

The men were carrying a document from former top Saddam deputy Izzat al-Douri ordering them to kill Raed Juhi, said Col Anwar Qadir, a police commander in Kirkuk, where the men were arrested on Saturday.

Al-Douri is the highest ranking member of the Saddam regime still at large and is believed to be at least the symbolic leader of Saddam loyalists still fighting US forces and the new government in Iraq.

The arrest came two days before Saddam’s trial resumes after a five-week break.

The first prosecution witnesses are expected to testify before the five-judge panel, offering accounts of the deaths of more than 140 Shiite villagers following an assassination attempt against Saddam in the town of Dujail in 1982.

If convicted Saddam and his seven co-defendants could be sentenced to death by hanging.

Before dawn today, about 350 Iraqi soldiers in 50 vehicles carried out an operation in a Sunni Muslim area south of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. A similar operation two weeks ago brought national protests from Sunni leaders.

Iraqi army Maj. Karim Al-Zihayri said 15 people were arrested on suspicion of planting roadside bombs, attacking checkpoints, kidnapping and theft. The troops did not meet any resistance, he added.

US and Iraqi officials have warned of an upsurge in insurgent attacks ahead of the December 15 elections, in which voters will choose the first fully constitutional parliament since Saddam Hussein’s rule collapsed in April 2003.

American authorities are hoping for a big Sunni Arab turnout, a move that could produce a government that would win the trust of the religious community that forms the backbone of the insurgency.

President Jalal Talabani said that insurgent groups have responded to his call for talks and have contacted his office.

“We are receiving calls from groups who claim to be from the resistance and they are expressing their support for meetings” with the government, Talabani told reporters. ”We want to convince every sincere Iraqi who is carrying arms to come and participate in the political process.”

Talabani did not name the groups that contacted his office, but residents of Anbar province said Thursday that four insurgent groups that are active in that area are conferring among themselves to chose a representative to meet government officials.

For months, Sunni Arabs have been accusing the Interior Ministry of wholesale arrests and abuse of Sunnis in an attempt to find a handful of rebels. The discovery by US troops this month of up to 173 detainees – malnourished and some showing signs of torture – hidden in an Interior Ministry building in central Baghdad gave credence to those charges.

The Iraq government has set up a committee that is investigating the case, but Talabani told reporters that he didn’t think there was a serious problem.

“I believe there is exaggeration, but every incident should be investigated,” he said.

Talabani added that even those who are “accused of terrorism, they should be punished according to the law”.