U.S. Holds Ex-Mayor, 2 Others in Iraq Raids

The former acting mayor of Fallouja and two U.S.-trained Iraqi civil defense workers are being held on suspicion of involvement in deadly insurgent raids in the Iraqi city last weekend, the Pentagon said Thursday.

At least 27 Iraqis died and 35 people were wounded in Saturday’s coordinated attacks on a police station and civil defense headquarters in the city west of Baghdad.

Police said dozens of prisoners escaped from jail cells in the police station during the attack.

Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita and Army Brig. Gen. David Rodriguez told reporters at a briefing that the former acting mayor and two Civil Defense Corps workers were among Iraqis being questioned.

“The mayor was suspected, just based on the situation.... So they detained him, and we’re interrogating him and trying to get to the bottom of it,” Rodriguez said.

The U.S. has trained and deployed more than 200,000 Iraqi security personnel. Di Rita said the two Civil Defense Corps workers who were detained “were obviously vetted and were able to slip through somehow.”

Rodriguez said U.S. forces were conducting background checks “the best we can” on Iraqi trainees.

Di Rita and Rodriguez did not name any of those being questioned.

Fallouja is a hotbed of anti-U.S. sentiment and lies in the so-called Sunni Triangle, the former power base for deposed President Saddam Hussein.