Forces detain Iraq's deputy health minister

Iraqi forces on Thursday detained a senior Health Ministry official accused of being a central figure in alleged corruption and the infiltration of the ministry by Shi'ite militiamen blamed for much of the recent sectarian violence in the capital, the US military said. A ministry spokesman said US and Iraqi forces had seized deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili, a supporter of radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, from his first-floor office in northern Baghdad. The raid comes a day after Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the chief military spokesman in Iraq said a security plan to stop the rampant attacks in the capital was under way.