Iraq security forces arrest several officials in anticorruption crackdown

Elite security personnel carry out a large-scale operation at dawn in the Green Zone and several neighbourhoods in Baghdad, security source says.

Several Iraqi politicians, lawmakers and officials have been arrested on corruption charges, Iraqi state-run media report.

Among the suspects detained on Sunday during dawn raids conducted by elite security forces in the capital, Baghdad, were officials whose names were mentioned in confessions.

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Also arrested were members of parliament “whose immunity had been lifted”, a security source told the Iraqi News Agency. The arrests were made as part of a wider anticorruption crackdown reportedly ordered by Iraq’s new prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi.

There has been no official statement from the Iraqi government or security forces about the arrests, but a member of the Al-Azm Alliance, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera that Muthanna al-Samarrai, the head of the alliance, was detained.

His office manager was also arrested during a raid on al-Samarrai’s residence inside Baghdad’s Green Zone.

Arrests were carried out by the Counter Terrorism Service and were based on statements provided by Adnan al-Jumaili, deputy oil minister, after his arrest last month on corruption charges, a source said.

Al-Zaidi has pledged to fight corruption and mismanagement that have plagued Iraq for decades.

Authorities have seized about $86m in cash this month, allegedly as part of the corruption case against al-Jumaili.

The Associated Press news agency reported, citing a security agency report, that seven people were arrested on Sunday, including five members of parliament.

AP reported that some of those arrested were from the political bloc of former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

During November’s parliamentary elections, al-Sudani’s bloc won the largest share of seats, but he did not return as prime minister. He stepped aside amid a deadlock in the Coordination Framework, a group of Shia parties allied with Iran that brought al-Sudani to power. They disagreed for months over their preferred candidate for the post.