Iraqi official: US forces violated law in overnight arrests (Roundup)

Sep 24, 2010, 16:54 GMT

Mosul, Iraq - The Iraqi governor of the restive city of Mosul said Friday that US forces had raided a neighborhood there, arresting dozens of locals in what he said was a politically motivated sweep and a violation of the law.

Ethel Nujaifi, governor of Iraq's Nineveh Province, in which Mosul is located, told the German Press Agency dpa that US military forces carried out the sweep on Thursday night in the north-west neighbourhood of Zammar.

He said the raid was contrary to democracy and a transgression of the Withdrawal of the American Forces from Iraq Agreement, which saw US troop levels drop to 50,000.

The agreement stipulates that the United States is not permitted to detain or arrest any Iraqi unless it is done in agreement with the Iraqi government. Per the agreement, US forces must also turn over arrested persons to Iraqi authorities within 24 hours of their detention or arrest.

The head of Mosul's Security and Defence Committee Abdul-Rahim al-Shammari described Thursday's raid as a 'flagrant violation' of the agreement.

Both al-Shammari and Nujaifi said the sweep was carried out solely by US troops with no accompanying Iraqi forces.

While the Iraqi government in Baghdad has yet to confirm whether it ordered or approved of the alleged raid, the US military press office in Iraq told dpa in a statement that 'United States forces do not participate in unilateral operations.'

The military press office added that it had 'no reports of any US forces participating in operations near Mosul on Thursday.'

But al-Shammari said that the US military continues to 'interfere openly' in Mosul even after the US declared its withdrawal from Iraq.

For his part, Nujaifi suggested that the raid was politically motivated because it targeted specific tribesmen, imams of local mosques and figures opposed to the Iraqi general census, which is considered to be a map of Iraq's ethnic makeup.

'We are calling on the Iraqi government to postpone the general census for the time being until the formation of an elected government has taken place, or else this will lead to the disruption of the province,' said Nujaifi.

More than five months have passed since Iraqis went to the polls in March, but talks among the main political parties remain in disarray amid mutual accusations of sectarianism and disagreement over who should head the new government.

Despite the lag in forming a government, Iraq's planning minister has vowed that the general population census would be carried out as scheduled for October 24.

The census, which last took place over two decades ago, was previously postponed for a year due to concerns that it would fuel sectarian and ethnic tensions in contested areas in the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul.

Opponents of the census fear that its numbers could be politicized in areas where Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen reside.

There was more violence in Mosul on Thursday, with three people killed and one wounded in al-Qaeda attacks, Iraqi police said.