Baghdad ‘governor’ arrested by US: Another Saddam aide held
BAGHDAD, April 27: US forces seeking to restore order to Iraq swooped on Sunday on the self-appointed governor of Baghdad, arresting him for trying to run the capital without their authority.
A US military statement said Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi, who declared himself governor 10 days ago, had been “removed” from Baghdad for obstructing efforts to get Iraqis back to work.
The military also reported that it had detained General Hussam Mohammad Amin, a key figure in negotiations with the U.N. inspectors who hunted banned Iraqi weapons before the invasion.
Gen Amin, number 49 on a US list of 55 most-wanted members of former president Saddam Hussein’s administration, is the 13th known to be in custody. A US military source said he was caught west of Baghdad on Saturday, but declined to reveal who captured him.
The US military statement said Zubaidi had been detained because of “subversive” activities that included telling people they could not return to work without his approval.
“(His) efforts to take political and personal advantage during this transitional period...made it necessary for coalition forces to act decisively against him,” it said.
Mr Zubaidi’s Local Council of Baghdad issued a statement accusing US forces of detaining him because he had awarded pay increases to city employees. “We demand (his) immediate release,” it said.
In a sign of the resentment facing US troops in some quarters, a gunman ambushed two Humvee vehicles stopped in traffic in Baghdad and wounded four soldiers, one seriously. There was no immediate indication of the attacker’s identity.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived in the Gulf to thank allies for their help in the invasion and to discuss possible changes to US military arrangements in the region to take account of Saddam’s removal.
GARNER’S PLEDGE: In Baghdad, the retired American general charged with rebuilding Iraq pledged to help forge an honest government.
Stepping up his efforts to win over Iraqis increasingly suspicious of US intentions, Jay Garner said in a broadcast address: “I am here to help you rebuild your country and to turn your government into one which serves you.”
A senior aide said General Garner would meet 300-400 prominent Iraqis in Baghdad on Monday to identify potential national leaders and discuss forming a new government.
Barbara Bodine, Garner’s coordinator for central Iraq, said pro-American Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress umbrella group, had been invited. So had the country’s main Shia group, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).
A spokesman for SCIRI, which is based in Tehran, said the group would probably attend the meeting on condition Washington allowed Iraqis to choose their own interim government.
The participation of SCIRI would be a boost for US officials hoping to make Monday’s meeting a broad gathering of religious, ethnic and political forces.
Jordan’s King Abdullah urged Washington to expedite the formation of a new government to avert possible fragmentation of the war-torn country.
“I would have thought they (US) should have moved faster ...The vacuum that is there at the moment is not helping the situation on the ground,” the king told CNN in an interview.
America is wrestling with the thorny task of restoring war-damaged services across Iraq and improving its relationship with a population suspicious, often resentful, over the continuing US role in the country.
Bodine met two Saddam-era Baghdad deputy mayors on Sunday to try to get repair work going. An aide said they discussed restoring water, sewage and waste collection services, severely damaged by US bombing.
CHEMICAL WEAPONS: An American television network said on Sunday that initial tests on a 200-litre barrel of chemicals found by US forces in northern Iraq had detected nerve and blistering agents.
Quoting Pentagon officials, ABC News said special forces had found 14 unmarked barrels, at least a dozen missiles
and 150 gas masks at a site 180kms northwest of Baghdad. —Reuters
