Hospital chief questioned in Baghdad blasts

The U.S. military said Wednesday it was holding the administrator of a psychiatric hospital on suspicion that he may have helped insurgents find mentally disabled women to carry bombs that devastated two Baghdad markets this month.

The Feb. 1 blasts, which Iraqi officials said killed 99 people, marked the worst violence to hit the capital since a buildup of U.S. troops was completed in June. The day after the attacks, U.S. and Iraqi officials showed photographs of the heads of two women, who they said had been used to unwittingly carry explosives that were detonated by remote control in the markets.

According to military officials, both women were mentally disabled and unaware of what they were doing.

At a news conference, Navy Rear Adm. Greg Smith said U.S. forces detained the man Sunday at the Rashad psychiatric hospital “in connection with the possible exploitation of mentally impaired women” by insurgents with the Al Qaeda in Iraq militant group.

Smith said the hospital administrator was being questioned to determine whether he had provided information to Al Qaeda in Iraq about patients at Rashad or other medical facilities.

He did not name the administrator, but a hospital worker and a spokesman for the Ministry of Health identified him as Sahi Abaoub Hermish Maliki. They, and Smith, said Maliki had worked at the hospital for only a couple of weeks.

The hospital worker and a Sadr City pharmacist who knows Maliki expressed surprise that he would be suspected of involvement in insurgent activity.

The pharmacist, Mohammed Ali Khadem, described Maliki as a popular doctor who had run a private clinic near Sadr City for more than 10 years.

“He has a calm personality, and throughout the years he has built a very good reputation for himself here in Sadr City,” said Khadem, adding that Maliki was not known to be politically active.

Maliki was described as both a pediatrician and a psychiatrist by Iraqi health officials. His specialty remained unclear.

At the Rashad facility, the hospital worker, who asked not to be named, said U.S. forces had raided the Rashad institution about 1:30 p.m. Sunday, rifling through cabinets and offices and leaving about 4 p.m. with the doctor. U.S. forces had returned several times since then, he said. The employee estimated Maliki to be in his mid-50s.

“We might understand his detention if they accused him of stealing something, but this accusation is unbelievable,” said the worker, insisting that the Shiite Muslim doctor would not have helped Sunni Muslim insurgents. “That doesn’t make sense.”

He said Maliki had been an administrator at Sadr General Hospital in Baghdad before being asked to take over at Rashad, after the last director was killed by insurgents in December. That director’s predecessor had left Baghdad after being kidnapped for ransom. He was freed after his family paid about $40,000, the hospital employee said.

Insurgents have assassinated hundreds of doctors, professors and other educated professionals whom they consider obstacles to their efforts to establish a strict Islamic state. The U.S. military said insurgents have stepped up the use of bombings utilizing women, who are less frequently searched for explosives and who can easily hide bombs beneath the flowing abayas that many wear.

On Wednesday, police in Babil province south of Baghdad said a woman wearing an explosives vest had tried to enter a Shiite shrine. A policewoman searching females detected the bomb.

--

tina.susman@latimes.com

Times staff writers Caesar Ahmed and Usama Redha contributed to this report.