Article

2009-06-18 Iraq

BAGHDAD Iraqi forces on Wednesday arrested a man suspected of being involved in last weeks assassination of a leading Sunni member of Parliament, Iraqi officials said.

Excellent and good job by the Iraqi forces.

Around 1 p.m., a quick-response force raided a house in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Ghazaliya, an area once controlled by Sunni insurgents, and detained a man described as the mastermind behind the killings of Harith al-Obaidi, the lawmaker, an aide and three bodyguards, said Brig. Gen. Nomon Dakhil Jawad, the commander of the force. General Jawad identified the suspect as Ahmed Abid Uwaid al-Luhaibi, a member of the Awakening, a government-backed Sunni paramilitary force. The general said Mr. Luhaibi was also an assistant commander in the Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni jihadist group.

Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf, a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior, confirmed the arrest but said it was too early to say what role Mr. Luhaibi might have played in the killing.

Mr. Obaidi, his aide and his bodyguards were shot at point-blank range in a mosque on Friday afternoon, shortly after Mr. Obaidi had given a sermon. Mr. Obaidi was the leader of the main Sunni bloc in Parliament, as well as a strong critic of human rights abuses in Iraqi prisons.

An officer on the government committee investigating the assassination, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said Mr. Luhaibi was linked to the weapon used in the killings.

Posted by Steve White 2009-06-18 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

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