Baquba, May 07: A former anti-Al-Qaeda militia head has been arrested on charges of working for the rebels and of killing 25 people, an Iraqi provincial police chief said on Thursday.
“We have arrested a man known as Hajji Bassem, a Sahwa militia leader. He is accused of having killed 25 people, of having carried out attacks and of having caused the displacement of people,” said General Abdul Hussein al-Shimmari.
He said Bassem Ibrahim al-Karkhi was arrested in the central Iraqi city of Baquba after a tip-off and had confessed.
The suspect was an officer in Saddam Hussein’s army before the 2003 US-led invasion and joined the police force after the former Iraqi oresident’s overthrow, his father Abdul Hassan said.
He later became an Al-Qaeda member and also belonged to a secular rebel group while at the same time heading a 70-strong Sahwa force which combats the insurgents, he said.
—Agencies