Suspect in Sunni politician's death arrested

Iraqi forces today arrested an al Qaida-linked member of a Sunni paramilitary group who was believed to be a mastermind of the assassination of a prominent Sunni politician in Baghdad, officials said.

The announcement came less than a week after Harith al-Obeidi, the leader of the largest Sunni bloc in parliament, was gunned down as he left a mosque following Friday prayers in Baghdad.

The assailant died after detonating a grenade as guards gave chase.

Al-Obeidi’s death raised fears of increased violence as US troops face a June 30 deadline to withdraw from urban areas in line with a security pact that calls for their full withdrawal from the country by 2012.

The agreement allows the Iraqis to ask for the Americans to help, but Prime Minister Nouri Maliki rejected that option in an interview published Wednesday in a French newspaper.

“We will not ask them to intervene in combat operations or in operations related to maintaining public order,” Mr Maliki told Le Monde.

He said the government would only ask for US logistical support “to transport our troops ... because we no longer have planes”.

Police commandos wearing black masks and helmets descended on the western Baghdad neighbourhood of Ghazaliyah and stormed the suspect’s house while he was eating lunch with his wife and three children.

The troops handcuffed and blindfolded the man, searched the house, then escorted him to their Humvees parked nearby. The operation lasted about 15 minutes, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene.

Brig Gen Numan Dakhil Jawad, the commander of the quick reaction force that staged the raid, said the apprehended suspect was a reputed member of an al-Qaida front group who had joined the local Awakening Council. The suspect was identified as a 45-year-old mosque guard named Ahmed Abid Uwaid.

Awakening Councils are mainly Sunni groups, including many former insurgents, who joined forces with the Americans, promising to renounce violence and fight al Qaida. The movement was initially funded by the Americans and is considered a key factor in a dramatic drop in violence over the past two years.

A high-ranking Iraqi security official confirmed the arrest of a suspect linked to al Qaida in Iraq.

The official said the suspect was linked to an unidentified politician.

The arrest was based on tips received over the past several days, including one from the owner of the pistol used in the assassination, the official said, adding the pistol’s owner had also had been arrested.

Interior Minister spokesman Maj Gen Abdul-Karim Khalaf has denied the report.

Shiite and Sunni politicians have said al-Obeidi’s killing was the latest strike in a bid to stoke sectarian violence ahead of the US withdrawal and national elections scheduled for January 30.

Al-Obeidi, an outspoken advocate of prisoners’ rights, and a bodyguard were shot to death as they left a mosque in a heavily guarded area in the former insurgent stronghold of Yarmouk.

The 47-year-old lawmaker was at the centre of a stormy parliamentary debate over claims of torture in Iraqi jails and some politicians raised suspicion that his killing may have been linked to his campaign on behalf of detainees.

But the Interior Ministry has said the evidence so far indicates al Qaida in Iraq was behind the attack.

The Sunni terror network and other insurgents have frequently targeted other Sunnis who are perceived as co-operating with the US-backed government’s efforts to promote national reconciliation.

Al-Obeidi took the helm of the Iraqi Accordance Front – which holds 44 seats in the 275-member parliament – in May after his predecessor, Ayad al-Samarraie, became the parliamentary speaker. He was the fourth Iraqi member of parliament to be killed since the US-led invasion in March 2003.