TWO DOZEN Iraqi interior ministry officials have been arrested on charges of belonging to an outlawed political party.
Maj Gen Abdul Karim Khalaf said yesterday the officers, ranked from lieutenant to general, were suspected of membership of al-Awda, the successor of the ousted Baath party of former president Saddam Hussein.
“They are now being interrogated under the supervision of the Iraqi judiciary,” he stated.
He did not confirm reports that they had been plotting a coup. An elite unit reporting directly to prime minister Nuri al-Maliki is said to have made the arrests.
Statements from a variety of sources created confusion about the arrests.
The ministry’s head of public relations, Brig Gen Alaa Taie, said the detainees intended to burn down the ministry, perhaps to destroy records. A second official claimed they had attempted to bribe colleagues to join al-Awda, and large sums of money had been seized.
A third source said most were members of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), which is locked in a Shia-on-Shia power struggle with Mr Maliki’s Dawa party.
Dr Juan Cole, of the University of Michigan, who follows Iraq developments closely, said it is likely that Mr Maliki intends to purge this sensitive ministry of officials installed by previous governments or by the US.
Dr Cole pointed out that the post-war interior ministry was established by a Sunni ex-Baathist appointed by interim premier Ayad Allawi, who enjoyed close ties with the CIA. Other former Baathists were given key posts.
However, when the Shias took power after the 2005 election, the SIIC took control and drafted its militiamen into the police.
The detentions were ordered in the run-up to the January 31st provincial elections in which Sunnis are competing with Shias for seats in northern councils while Dawa and SIIC are rivals in the south.
In recent months, Mr Maliki has been building a personal power base by forming alliances with Sunni and Shia tribal leaders.
He is doing this with the aim of attempting to influence the outcome of the provincial polls and, later in the year, the parliamentary election.
