Joint US-Iraqi forces detain deputy health minister (2nd Roundup)

Feb 8, 2007, 15:55 GMT

The Health Ministry is regarded as a haven for Shiite militias, with both al-Zamli and his boss, Health Minister Ali al-Shemari, members of the movement of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Baghdad - Joint US-Iraqi forces seized Deputy Health Minister Hazem al-Zamli at the ministry on Thursday in a politically- charged raid aimed at terrorists and militias operating in Baghdad.

The Health Ministry is regarded as a haven for Shiite militias, with both al-Zamli and his boss, Health Minister Ali al-Shemari, members of the movement of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

In a statement, the US military alleged that al-Zamli was involved in the murder of seven ministry officials.

It also said he had taken bribe money and funnelled millions of dollars to Sadr's militias, known as the Mahdi army, which is suspected of having entered state clinics and killed Sunni patients and their relatives and intimidated doctors.

Al-Shemari reacted to the raid and seizure of his deputy by demanding his immediate release.

'Al-Zamli was detained in an uncivilized way,' he charged.

Analysts saw the US action at the Health Ministry as part of the new get-tough strategy to try to boost security in the Iraqi capital. On Wednesday, American officers had said the process would be one of many small individual steps and not a major offensive.

The raid came as meanwhile Defence Minister Abdelkader Mohammed Jazeem was being questioned behind closed doors in parliament.

Sunni deputies in parliament had requested the session with the defence minister, amid demands made by their Islamic Party of the government finally to take action against the militias who were operating under the cover of the security forces.

The Sunnis have also acused the US military of allowing the militias to operate.

Meanwhile in further bloodshed in the strife-torn country, at least 46 Iraqis were killed and 58 wounded in a series of blasts across Iraq over a 24-hour period, sources said Thursday.

In the latest military action in Amiriyah, south of Baghdad, US- led coalition forces killed 13 terror suspects in an air strike Thursday morning, according to a US statement.

Earlier, sources said that 14 Iraqis were killed and 15 injured, some seriously, when a remote-controlled car bomb went off Thursday morning at a public market in Azziziyah, south of Baghdad. The blast also damaged a number of stores close to the site.

Police arrested four Iraqi men and a woman suspected of being involved in the blast.

In another incident, four Iraqi policemen and one civilian were killed Thursday when gunmen attacked a police patrol in Baquba, 60 kilometres north-east of the capital, witnesses said.

In eastern Baghdad, at least six Iraqis were killed and 10 others wounded, some seriously, in a car bomb blast Thursday near a mosque in the Shiite Amin district, sources said.

The bloodshed on Thursday came atop the violence on Wednesday, when at least 8 Iraqis were killed and 20 wounded when two explosive devices went off in Suwayrah city, according to Iraqi police sources.

The devices exploded consecutively on a main street in Suwayrah, 50 kilometres south-east of Baghdad, the sources added.

Besides the Iraqi casualties, four US marines died on Wednesday from wounds suffered in action in Anbar, north of Baghdad, the US military reported.