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]  |
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.
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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