Troops arrest Baghdad 'mayor'

The action seems to be a warning to local leaders trying to grab power without the United States' blessing.

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces arrested Baghdad's self-appointed mayor on Sunday, bundling Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi and seven of his top aides into an Army Humvee after he defied warnings to stop acting as the city's chief administrator.

Zubaidi, who wore Western-style suits and already had a spokesman, was arrested for "his inability to support the coalition military authority and for exercising authority which was not his," said Capt. David Connolly, a U.S. military spokesman.

Zubaidi had begun firing municipal employees, including those supervising the crucial revival of basic services such as electricity, sewage and water, so that he could put his own people in the jobs, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command.

His tactics, while brazen, are hardly unique here, and the U.S. reaction seemed to be a warning to local leaders seeking to capitalize on the political power vacuum that any accession to power must come on American terms.

The U.S. move came on the eve of the second meeting by Iraqi groups to discuss the shape of a transitional government and sent a clear signal that Americans want to control the next step. Between 300 and 400 representatives of various political, religious and ethnic groups are expected to take part in the all-day gathering today in Baghdad.

Zubaidi's aides said that he and his principal deputy, Jawdat Obeidi, were arrested after being lured to the sprawling Republican Palace grounds, now home to the U.S. civil-military coordination center, with the pretense they were being granted a meeting with Jay Garner, who is serving as Iraq's day-to-day administrator.

The Central Command said Zubaidi and seven people accompanying him were detained near the coordination center, although five of them eventually were released. Zubaidi and another man - believed by his aides to be Obeidi - were removed from Baghdad and placed in an internment facility elsewhere in Iraq "to prevent his continued misrepresentation of his authority as the mayor of Baghdad," the command said in a statement.

A Shiite Muslim who had lived outside Iraq for 24 years, Zubaidi had portrayed himself as a volunteer trying to help rebuild Baghdad's infrastructure and restart essential government services. He issued a flurry of edicts designed to establish control over the city's water, power and police services.

Although the U.S. ground commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, had warned Zubaidi on Wednesday to move out of the Palestine Hotel and cease his activities, Zubaidi responded with indifference, simply relocating to the Sheraton Hotel across the street and a neighboring social club.

Ahmed Abdelbakr, one of Zubaidi's spokesman, said his boss was simply trying to "fill a void."

"The Americans were late" in providing assistance, he said. "We needed somebody to help the city."

U.S. forces also detained the chief Iraqi liaison to the U.N. inspection teams on Sunday.

Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin became the 13th official on the United States' most-wanted list to be taken into custody, military officials said. He was No. 49 on the list of the 55. The military said he surrendered to American forces west of Baghdad.

Amin was one of two top Iraqi weapons specialists. He had a dual role, cooperating with U.N. inspection teams on their visits to more than a thousand sites across Iraq before the war, but at the same time helping to direct intelligence operations designed to frustrate the inspections. The other expert, Gen. Amir al-Saadi, was the first senior official to turn himself over after Baghdad fell.

Amin was among the key figures in Hussein's weapons programs and would be expected to have detailed knowledge of any illegal armaments and where they might be found, if they exist.

Even as Amin was taken into custody Sunday, dozens of Army chemical weapons experts descended on a munitions site to conduct more tests on barrels suspected of containing cyclosarin, a nerve agent, and mustard gas.

But late Sunday, the New York Times reported that a military team had tentatively concluded that there are no chemical weapons at the site near the town of Baiji.

Capt. Ryan Cutchin, the leader of Mobile Exploitation Team Bravo, said that after surveying the area his team believed that earlier reports were wrong: "Our tests showed no positive hits at all."

- Information from the Washington Post, New York Times, Associated Press and Los Angeles Times was used in this report.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright