US raids homes of two prominent Sunnis in Baghdad
US forces raided the homes of two officials from a prominent Sunni Arab organisation today, arresting bodyguards and confiscating weapons, Sunni officials said.
Adnan al-Dulaimi, secretary-general of the Conference for Iraq’s People, said soldiers in tanks and Humvees, with two helicopters circling overhead, broke into his home earlier today, put him and his family in a guest room and searched the house.
“It was if they were attacking a castle, not the home of a normal person who advises Iraq’s interim government and has called for reconciliation and renounced sectarianism,” al-Dulaimi told a news conference after the raid in western Baghdad.
The other raid took place at the Baghdad home of Harith al-Obeidi, another senior official in the organisation, said Iraq’s largest Sunni political party, the Iraqi Islamic Party.
The US military said it had conducted several raids in those areas of Baghdad today, but could not immediately identify the homes or Iraqis involved.
Sixteen Iraqis were killed in a number of shootings and other attacks in the capital today, raising to at least 98 the number of people who have died in violence in Iraq this week, including seven US service members.
The Conference for Iraq’s People and the Iraqi Islamic Party are two leading political organisations representing Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority, which has increasingly complained of abuse as US and Iraqi forces pursue insurgents, the bulk of whom are Sunnis. The two groups are also campaigning to defeat a draft constitution in an October 15 referendum.
Al-Dulaimi said the troops arrested four of his bodyguards and confiscated their weapons. He said the Americans were acting on false tips that linked the men to the insurgency.
“This act of humiliation ... derails our efforts to encourage Sunnis to take part in the political process,” said al-Dulaimi, urging the US government to stop such actions.
The two organisations are urging Sunnis to participate in the referendum, but to vote “no” to the constitution, which Sunni leaders believe will divide Iraq into Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni areas, with the Sunni one having the least power and revenue.
The Iraqi Islamic Party condemned the two raids as “a savage act” and an “unjustifiable aggression” saying such treatment of “good Iraqis” could set back efforts to persuade citizens to join efforts to improve security in the war-torn country.
Al-Dulaimi is a prominent critic of the Shiite-led government. On August 30, at a joint news conference with US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, he called for dismissing the country’s Shiite interior minister, accusing his security forces of massacring Sunnis. Al-Dulaimi warned that killings against Sunnis “will only lead to troubles” at a time when US officials are encouraging Sunnis to accept Iraq’s draft constitution.
His call came several days after 36 Sunnis were found shot dead in a dry riverbed near the Iranian border after they were kidnapped in Baghdad.
In Washington yesterday, US President George Bush warned that violence will increase in Iraq in the days leading up to the referendum.
“We can expect they’ll do everything in their power to try to stop the march of freedom,” Bush said of the insurgents. “And our troops are ready for it.”
In two attacks, gunmen opened fire on a Shiite bakery shop in the Dora neighbourhood, killing three civilians, and on a minibus carrying government cleaners to work, killing two and wounding seven, police said. Elsewhere in the capital, two civilians and four police officers were killed in drive-by shootings, and a 12-year-old child living in a homeless shelter died when a mortar exploded nearby, police said.
North of Baghdad, three members of the Al-Khalis city council were killed by gunmen on their way home from a meeting, and an Iraqi woman was killed and three other civilians were wounded when five mortar rounds hit them in Samara city, police said.
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