JAKARTA - Iraqi security forces on Wednesday captured militia commander Qasim Muslih, the Iraqi military said. The arrests were made in connection with an attack on a United States army base.
Muslih was arrested at dawn and is being questioned on anti-terrorism charges, the military statement said without giving further details.
Speaking to Reuters Thursday, May 27, two security sources said Muslih was arrested in Baghdad for involvement in several attacks, including a recent attack on the Ain al-Asad airbase, a U.S. army base, and other international forces in Irak.
Muslih is the head of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) of Anbar Province, a Shiite militia group backed by Iran. The United States considers it the greatest threat to security in the Middle East.
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said in a statement Wednesday night that security forces had arrested a man after an arrest warrant was issued against him, in accordance with acts of terrorism and based on a complaint filed against him.
Kadhimi did not name names in the statement, but said the defendant would remain in the custody of Joint Operations Command until the end of the investigation.
A copy of the arrest warrant issued for Muslih circulated on social media and verified by security sources as saying he was arrested under anti-terrorism laws, but had no further information.
For the record, the United States military base was attacked at least four times this month with rockets and unmanned aerial surveillance systems, in an incident seen by many Iraqis as a reflection of the United States' tensions with Iraq.
After the arrests, unidentified gunmen drove vehicles around the fortified Green Zone, which houses foreign embassies and government buildings, as a show of force, said a security source who spoke without naming names.
In the afternoon, dozens of PMF fighters controlled one of the entrances to the Green Zone and did not allow anyone in.
Two lawmakers said Shiite leaders had intervened to try to defuse the crisis and proposed to Kadhimi to move Muslih to PMF custody.
"Armed protests by armed groups are a serious violation of the Iraqi constitution," Kadhimi said in his statement, adding that he had ordered an immediate investigation.
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Last year, Iraqi security forces stormed an Iranian-backed militia stronghold in Baghdad, detaining more than a dozen members of the group. Shortly after the arrests, unidentified gunmen drove vehicles toward government buildings in the Green Zone demanding the militia's release. Most of the men were freed within hours.
"Every arrest case has to go its own way, as happens to every Iraqi. And of course, no one has to show strength to get what they want," Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, The United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative for Iraq, said via Twitter.
"Such behavior weakens the Iraqi state and further erodes public trust. State institutions must be respected at all times. Nothing is above the law," he concluded.
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