Free Chinese Lesson - Hit on Iraqi official seen as inside job

WORLD / Middle East

Hit on Iraqi official seen as inside job

(AP)
Updated: 2007-03-26 10:31

BAGHDAD - The suicide attack against Iraq's Sunni deputy prime minister
is now seen as an inside job carried out by a member of his own security
detail - a distant relative who had been arrested as an insurgent, freed
at the official's request, then hired as a bodyguard, a senior security
official and an aide to the victim told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie speaks during a press
conference with USAgriculture Secretary Mike Johanns at Baghdad's heavily
fortified green zone, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2006, in Iraq. [AP]

The assassination attempt, at least the third major security breach
involving a top politician in four months, prompted Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki to order a government-wide security shake up, including plans
to hire a foreign company to guard the Green Zone building where
parliament meets, the security official said on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to speak with reporters.

A suicide attacker came within feet of Deputy Prime Minister Salam
al-Zubaie and exploded his vest during a Friday prayer service in the
private mosque attached to al-Zubaie home. The Sunni official was
seriously wounded and nine people were killed.

The senior security official as well as a key aide to al-Zubaie said
Wahab al-Saadi, the distant relative accused of involvement in the
attack, was the only person at the prayer service who has not been
accounted for.

They said al-Saadi's car, which was parked outside the al-Zubaie
compound, exploded within minutes of the suicide attack.

The al-Zubaie aide said al-Saadi had recently been removed from the
bodyguard detail as a "troublemaker" but was still on the deputy prime
minister's payroll and - for that reason and because he was a relative -
was not searched when he entered the mosque.

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A cook for al-Zubaie who has since disappeared is also under suspicion.
He was in the kitchen that was only about 30 feet from the prayer room
when the attack occurred.

Sami al-Askari, a top aide to al-Maliki, said al-Saadi had been arrested
in the past on suspicion of insurgent activities but that al-Zubaie
successfully lobbied for his release and then made him a part of his
security detail, most likely because of their family relationship. The
security official and al-Zubaie's aide confirmed those details.

Other government security officials theorized that al-Saadi enlisted the
cook's help to let a second person into the compound to carry out the
bombing. They believed al-Saadi was the suicide attacker, although they
conceded he could just be on the run.

The attack on al-Zubaie, who is now said to be out of danger after
surgery in the US-run military hospital in the Green Zone, was the third
major security breakdown involving key members of the government or
parliament since Nov. 21.

Al-Askari and the security official said those attacks had prompted
al-Maliki to order a full investigation of all security guards. Once
complete, all those protecting Iraqi officials or lawmakers will be
issued new badges by the government.

Security IDs currently are issued by the American military. Those passes
allow access to secure locations, especially in the heavily guarded Green
Zone - site of the US Embassy and most Iraqi government offices and
parliament.

In the Nov. 21 incident, a bomb exploded in the motorcade of Parliament
Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, also a Sunni, as it drove into the parking
lot at the Green Zone Convention Center where the legislature meets.

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