Iraqi Officials Held in Alleged Coup Plot

Associated Press and Reuters via MSNBC.com
Dec. 18, 2008

BAGHDAD — At least 25 Iraqi interior ministry officials have been arrested, including several accused of planning a coup, according to newspaper reports Thursday.

The arrests over the past three days were carried out by an elite counterterrorism force that reports directly to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, The New York Times reported, citing Iraqi security officials.

Some of those detained were accused of trying to reconstitute Saddam Hussein’s outlawed Baath Party, an Iraqi government investigator said.

The interior ministry oversees Iraq’s police and other security services.

Four generals … were among those detained, the Times reported.

However, an official with access to the investigative file told The Associated Press that most of the arrests involved low-level ministry employees.

The Washington Post reported that those arrested included both Sunnis and Shiites. …

An Iraqi man was treated at a hospital on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008 after a bomb attack in Baghdad. (Photo credit: Johan Spanner / The New York Times)

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Related reports

35 Iraq officials held in raids on key ministry

Iraqi security officials detained

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12/19/08 Update

Iraqi releases alleged Baath party plotters … Officials say no evidence they were conspiring to revive Saddam’s party

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Iraq Ministry Says Employees Killed in U.S. Raid

Dec. 18, 2008

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government has accused U.S. forces of killing at least three Trade Ministry employees in a pre-dawn raid on ministry property in Baghdad, officials said on Thursday.

The cabinet’s National Media Center and the Trade Ministry issued statements alleging that U.S. forces raided a facility belonging to the Iraqi Grain Board, part of the Trade Ministry, early on Wednesday morning.

They said the troops killed several security guards, burned the guards’ offices and searched files and computers.

The U.S. military was not able to confirm any U.S. involvement in the incident.

The Trade Ministry said four security guards were killed in the incident in the Utaifiya neighborhood of Baghdad, while the National Media Center said three were killed.

“The Trade Minister condemns this ignominious act and asks American forces to present an explanation and an apology to the Trade Ministry,” the ministry said.

It called for the Iraqi government to launch a probe and to “present the wrongdoers for trial by Iraqi courts.” It also asked the U.S. government to make payments to the families of those killed in the incident.

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Leader of Iraqi Women’s Group Killed

Dec. 18, 2008

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq — Iraqi police say attackers have decapitated the leader of the women’s league of the Kurdish Communist Party.

A police officer says gunmen on Thursday stormed the Kirkuk home of Nahla Hussein al-Shaly and shot and beheaded her. …

Party spokesman Azad Gahareeb says the 37-year-old al-Shaly may have been targeted because she promoted women’s rights. He says the married mother of two was alone in the house when she was attacked.