BAGHDAD (AFP) — An official at a psychiatric hospital in the Iraqi capital has been detained on suspicion of supplying information about mentally ill patients to Al-Qaeda, the US military said on Wednesday.
The acting administrator of Al-Rashad hospital was arrested in his office on Sunday, US military spokesman Rear Admiral Gregory Smith told a news conference in Baghdad.
The detention, he added, is linked to investigations into separate attacks on pet markets in Baghdad on February 1 that killed 98 people and which were carried out by two women who Iraqi officials said were mentally impaired.
One was reportedly carrying a rucksack packed with explosives and the other wearing a suicide vest.
Smith said US troops had carried out a "thorough" search of Al-Rashad hospital, in eastern Baghdad near the Sadr City slum, bastion of the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
"Coalition forces detained a hospital administrator in connection with the possible exploitation of mentally impaired women to Al-Qaeda," he said.
"The administrator remains in coalition force detention and is being questioned to determine what role if any (he played) in supplying al-Qaeda with information regarding patients at the Al-Rashad psychiatric hospital or from other medical facilities in Baghdad."
US and Iraqi officials blamed Al-Qaeda for the market attacks, saying it was a reflection of its "twisted" ideology.
Smith did not identify the official and gave no further details but the Iraqi health ministry confirmed the arrest and named the official detained as Sahi Abub al-Maliki.
The ministry said Maliki had only recently been appointed acting administrator after his predecessor, Ibrahim Mohammed al-Ukail, was killed in a drive-by shooting on December 10.
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