US, Iraqi troops detains about three dozens people linked to suicide car bomb.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFsoldier iraq grenade (photo credit: AP)
US and Iraqi troops detained about three dozen people linked to one of the country's top Sunni politicians, including his son and a security guard who had keys to a suicide car bomb, US and Iraqi military officials said Friday.
Five American soldiers and an Iraqi civilian were injured trying to detonate the explosives near the compound of Adnan al-Dulaimi, leader of the biggest Sunni bloc in parliament, the US military said in a statement.
The mass detention of Dulaimi's staff - and his son - threatened to inflame political tensions between Sunni politicians and the Shi'ite-dominated government. Dulaimi is a harsh critic of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, the chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, said Maki Adnan al-Dulaimi, the senior lawmaker's son, was arrested after a gunman fleeing US and Iraqi troops sought refuge in his father's office Thursday night.
Moussawi said two car bombs were discovered at the Dulaimi's office compound.
The US statement said one vehicle rigged as a suicide car bomb was found on the street outside the compound, and one of Dulaimi's security guards had the keys.
According to the US, the pursuit involved two gunmen, and more than 40 people were detained in the investigation; the Iraqi officer said 36 people were being held.
The senior Dulaimi was under guard from his home in Baghdad.
"A joint US-Iraqi force came to my house at dawn and they arrested my son and now all family members are not allowed to leave the house," the lawmaker said from his home in Adil neighborhood.
Moussawi said the guard was in place to protect Dulaimi and his family members from reprisal. Dulaimi said he thought otherwise.
"I will wait until Saturday morning and if the ban on my family continues, then I will consider the government's measure as a house arrest," he told The Associated Press.
Dulaimi frequently accuses the Shi'ite Maliki of following sectarian policies. He is the leader of the Iraq Accordance Front, parliament's largest Sunni Arab bloc with 44 of the house's 275 seats. The Front pulled out its Cabinet members from the government in August to protest the prime minister's policies.
Moussawi declined to specify the charges against Maki Dulaimi.
The gunmen who allegedly sought refuge in the Sunni politician's office were responsible for the death of an Iraqi serving as a member of US-backed neighborhood watch group that is fighting extremists, the US statement said. The watch groups, which are credited with helping curb violence, grew out of a Sunni rebellion against al-Qaida in Iraq in the former insurgent stronghold of Anbar province and are considered one of the main success stories in more than four years of war.
During a sermon in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, Sheikh Nasir al-Saadi, a Shi'ite imam, said Iraq's government should watch al-Dulaimi closely: "Adnan al-Dulaimi and his office are the source of intimidation in Iraq."
Separately, a four-day US operation outside Beiji, 250 kilometers north of Baghdad, US forces detained 18 suspects and found two weapons caches after reports that al-Qaida in Iraq was using the area to plan attacks, the US military said in a statement Friday.
In other operations late Thursday and Friday in central and northern Iraq, the military said, one terror suspect was killed and 17 captured.
Also Friday, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte continued a visit to Iraq, where he was expected to meet with both Iraqi and American officials.
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