A branch of the government-owned Al-Rafidayn Bank in Baghdad was the victim last week of an armed robbery, which resulted in the killing of eight of its guards and the theft of $8.3 million.
It was later discovered that the robbers included members of the presidential guard responsible for the protection of Iraqi Vice President 'Adel Abdul Mahdi, who is a member of the Supreme Islamic Council which is fighting attempts by Prime Minister Al-Maliki to relegate it to a secondary role in the next parliamentary elections.
The vice president's bureau chief, Leith Shaber, contends that only one of the robbers was a guard member, and that the money was recovered in the home, specifically under a mattress, of Maj. Ja'afer Lazem, one of the robbers – and not in the office of the daily Al-'Adala of the Supreme Islamic Council.
A leader in the Supreme Islamic Council, Ridha Jawad Taqi, conceded that there was "a political struggle between members of the government and other organizations [he did not identify] to settle political scores."
The main culprit, in his view, is Interior Minister Al-Boulani, who belongs to another party [Al-Maliki's Da'wa Party].
Source: Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, London, August 7, 2009
