U.S. arrests key Iraq official for suspected ties to militia
Ali Lami, who oversaw the controversial purging of Baath Party members is alleged to have helped militias said to get training and funding from within Iran.
BAGHDAD — A senior Iraqi official, who oversaw the purging of Saddam Hussein loyalists from government jobs, has been arrested for his activities in connection with a violent Shiite Muslim militia, his political backers and supporters said.
Ali Lami was detained Wednesday by U.S. forces at Baghdad's airport as he arrived from Lebanon, said Iyad Kadhim Sabti, a spokesman for the committee that removed members of Hussein's Baath Party from government positions.
Lami has served as executive director of the committee, chaired by Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, that was formed to ensure that high-ranking Baathists did not hold influential roles or try to take back power after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The U.S. military declined to confirm Lami's arrest but released a statement late Wednesday saying that American forces waiting at the airport had detained a "suspected senior special groups leader" after his plane landed.
"Special groups" is the term the United States uses for offshoots of the Mahdi Army militia who allegedly have received money, arms and training from Iran. U.S. military intelligence officials have described the special groups as retaining close ties to the regular Mahdi Army, loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr.
Senior Shiite officials in Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government contacted Thursday, said they were not familiar with Lami. Interior Minister Jawad Bolani, who worked with Lami in 2003 on Iraq's interim governing council, declined to comment when asked about the arrest.
The U.S. military statement said the detained man was thought to be responsible for a June 24 bombing at a district advisory council office in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood that killed six Iraqis and four Americans -- two State Department employees and two U.S. soldiers. A senior U.S. military official said the U.S. army believed the bombing was carried out because the council had planned to vote out its chief, who belonged to the Sadr movement. The military statement described the wanted man as traveling regularly to Iran and Lebanon "to meet and help run the Iranian-backed special groups."
Lami's arrest had the apparent backing of Iraqi security forces, who confirmed it, but also did not name him. The Shiite official has been a pivotal figure in Iraqi politics since being appointed to the de-Baathification commission in January 2004, where he earned a reputation for tough enforcement.
