Predawn raids by elite Iraqi forces Tuesday ended in the shooting death of a government employee and the arrest of two prominent Sunni Arabs, according to witnesses and officials.
The troops were from the central government’s counterterrorism units, said Gov. Raad Rashid al-Tamimi of Diyala province, where the raid took place. They had stormed the government building in the city of Baqouba and arrested Sunni provincial council member Hussein al-Zubaidi, who belongs to the Iraqi Islamic Party.
Another raid led to the arrest of a prominent Sunni university dean.
Controversy swirled over who sent the troops on their mission. The unit, special forces referred to by detractors as the dirty squad, reports to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s counterterrorism office.
Spokesmen for Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, and the Defense Ministry denied that he had ordered the raids.
“These special forces work with the Americans. They are not associated with the Ministry of Defense,” said ministry spokesman Mohammed Askari.
The U.S. military denied it had any involvement in the operation.
The head of Iraq’s national media center, Ali Hadi, also denied that Maliki had ordered the raid and said the prime minister had called an investigation to find out what happened. The interior and defense ministers were sent to gather facts, Hadi said.
Witnesses said that more than 50 soldiers stormed the compound and rousted council members from their beds. The troops roughed up people, and the governor said his secretary was shot to death.
Separately, special forces also assaulted the house of the dean of Diyala’s university, Nazar Jabbar al-Khafaji, and led him away.
In southern Iraq, a rocket attack killed a U.S. soldier Tuesday in Amarah.
