Babel police say captured murderers of candidate

BABEL / IraqiNews.com: Initial investigations with 38 suspects detained on Sunday led to the murderers of Haytham al-Husseini, a candidate for the local council elections in Babel, the province’s police chief said. “Confessions by a number of persons arrested in a raid by the Scorpion Force on the houses of suspects in Jebla district, (50 km) northeast of Hilla city, led to the murderers of Husseini,” Maj. General Fadel Raddad told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The investigations require secrecy in some aspects,” said Raddad, adding “the persons not proved involved will be released”. He did not give further details. A security source in Babel had said three policemen in al-Mahawil, 16 km north of Hilla city, were arrested on Sunday on suspected involvement in the murder of Husseini, the Dawlat al-Qanoon list candidate. “The operation resulted in the capturing of three policemen on charges of involvement in the murder of Husseini,” he said, adding the operation was conducted based on intelligence tip-offs. Earlier in the day, a security source said that personnel from the Scorpion Force arrested in the area of Jebla 35 people suspected of involvement in murdering Husseini. “The force arrested 35 suspects and seized an amount of weapons, including medium BKC rifles,” the source said. Husseini was assassinated and four of his bodyguards wounded in an armed attack northeast of Hilla on Friday. Husseini’s Dawlat al-Qanoon (State of Law) list is composed of Maliki’s Islamic Dawa Party, the Dawa Party – Iraq Organization, the Islamic Solidarity List, Feyli Kurds, the Islamic Union for Iraqi Turkmen and the Mustaqiloon (Independents) bloc. The provincial council elections are scheduled to be held on January 31 in Iraq’s 18 provinces save Kirkuk and the three autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region provinces of Arbil, Sulaimaniya and Duhuk. According to the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) office in Babel, 387 out of the total number of candidates of 1,452 are women. The candidates are vying over 30 seats in the local council. Hilla, the capital city of Babel province, lies 100 km south of Baghdad. Babel received security responsibilities from the U.S. forces on October 23, 2008. AmR (S) 2