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Iraqi forces arrest US-allied militia leader
Iraqi forces backed by US troops have arrested a US-allied Sunni Arab militia leader charged with murder, Iraqi officials said on Sunday. The US military said Nadhim al-Jubouri, leader of a government-backed local militia and a religious leader in the town of Dhuluiya, 70 kilometres north of Baghdad, and his two brothers, were seized from their home on Saturday. Derrick Cheng, a US military spokesman in northern Iraq, said "members of the Iraq National Police with coalition advisers arrested three individuals. Included in the arrest was ... Mullah Nadhim Mahmud Khalil and two brothers. The National Police presented warrants ... under the charge of terrorism". The mostly Sunni Arab Awakening Councils, local guard units including many former insurgents who switched sides to fight Al Qaeda in late 2006, have been key to cutting violence in Iraq. As an Awakening leader, Jubouri was a key US ally in the fight against Al Qaeda in largely Sunni Salahuddin province, where Saddam Hussein's hometown is located. Hussein Ibrahim Abdullah, a police lieutenant-colonel in Dhuluiya, said Jubouri was accused in killings that took place in the largely Shia town of Dujail during the height of Iraq's sectarian conflict in 2006-2007. "People from Dujail brought charges against Mullah Nadhim for the murder of their relatives," said Ahmed Karim, the deputy governor of Salahuddin province, referring to Jubouri's religious title. He gave no further details of the charges. Iraqi in Denmark: Meanwhile, Danish intelligence agency PET suspects a 42-year-old Iraqi man living in Denmark of being the chief Northern European recruiter for suicide bombers for Iraq, Danish newspaper Politiken said on Sunday. PET has for more than a year tried to expel Amer Saeed from Denmark under special anti-terror legislation on the grounds that he poses a threat to the Scandinavian country's national security, Politiken said. However, his expulsion has not been carried out on humanitarian grounds and he continues to live in Denmark. PET has never disclosed any details about why it wants him expelled, neither to Saeed nor his lawyers. But Politiken said it had copies of German court documents that showed that Saeed had been in close contact with Moroccans who collaborated with the Al Qaeda in Iraq terror network. The documents "from several German terrorism trials show that PET believes that Amer Saeed has been the main organiser in Northern Europe for recruiting terrorists to Iraq", Politiken said. Politiken said the claim was corroborated by confidential interrogation reports from the Moroccan intelligence agency, of which the newspaper had copies. Posted by: Fred 2009-05-04 |
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