Tikrit, Iraq, May 3 - Iraqi forces backed by US troops have arrested a US-allied Sunni Arab militia leader charged with murder, Iraqi officials said on Sunday.
The US military said Nadhim al-Jubouri, leader of a government-backed local militia and a religious leader in the town of Dhuluiya, 70 km (45 miles) north of Baghdad, and his two brothers, were seized from their home on Saturday.
Derrick Cheng, a US military spokesman in northern Iraq, said ”members of the Iraq National Police with coalition advisors arrested three individuals. Included in the arrest was ... Mullah Nadhim Mahmud Khalil and two brothers. The National Police presented warrants ... under the charge of terrorism.”
The mostly Sunni Arab Awakening Councils, local guard units including many former insurgents who switched sides to fight al-Qaeda in late 2006, have been central to cutting violence in Iraq.
As an Awakening leader, Mr Jubouri was an important US ally in the fight against al-Qaeda in largely Sunni Salahuddin province, where Saddam Hussein’s hometown is located.
Hussein Ibrahim Abdullah, a police lieutenant-colonel in Dhuluiya, said Mr Jubouri was accused in killings that took place in the largely Shi’ite town of Dujail during the height of Iraq’s sectarian conflict in 2006-2007.
”People from Dujail brought charges against Mullah Nadhim for the murder of their relatives,” said Ahmed Karim, the deputy governor of Salahuddin province, referring to Mr Jubouri’s religious title. He gave no further details of the charges.
He added that at the time the alleged crimes took place, Mr Jubouri was a notorious al-Qaeda operative.
The Awakening militias, which spread from western Anbar province across Iraq, were backed and paid by US forces until the Iraqi government took control of them in recent months.
Payment of their salaries has fallen far behind schedule since the Iraqi government took control.
Many guards regard the Shi’ite-led government with suspicion and have been dismayed by salary delays, insurgent attacks on guard units, and a spate arrests of guards in recent months.
In late March, Iraqi forces seized Adil al-Mashhadani, head of a patrol unit in central Baghdad’s Fadhil neighbourhood, sparking clashes with his supporters that killed three people.
Several others have been detained. US and Iraqi officials deny the government is targeting the guards because of their sect or insurgent past, but say those who have committed grave crimes must face justice.
Guards have come under attack, and at least 125 have been killed since October, US officials say. On Saturday, gunmen opened fire at a guard unit south of Baghdad, wounding one.
On April 22, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest inside a mosque in Dhuluiya where may have targeted Mr Jubouri.
Also on Saturday, about 30 guard units walked off their posts south of Baghdad in protest of salary delays and the attack in Yusufiya.
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