Arrests indicate big struggle for power in Iraq

Press, 2 August 1979, Page 6

Arrests indicate big struggle for power in Iraq

NZPA-Reuter Bagdad About 36 people have been arrested in Iraq, accused of forming an opposition bloc within the regime and planning to seize power eventually, according to an authoritative newspaper report yesterday from Bagdad. An official blackout has been maintained on the high-level “conspiracy,” announced in Bagdad on Saturday that now seems to reflect a big power struggle [between the new President, IMr Saddam Hussein, and ‘critics of his authoritarian rule.

In the only official statement on the affair, it was said that five members of the ruling Revolutionary Command Council, including a Deputy Prime Minister had been arrested on charges of having plotted against the state, with “external” support. Since then, the Arab world’s press has given widely conflicting reports on the number of arrests, ranging from 5 to 250, main-

taining that a number of executions have already taken place. There has. also been broad speculation on the outside Power involved, reports pointing to the United States, the Soviet Union, Iran, Syria, Egypt, and Lybia.

Iraqi officials say there been no executions yet, and there will be a trial first by a seven-main special court, according to Beirut’s independent daily, “An Nahari,” which has been in touch with a member of: this court. It was likely that the five members of the Revolutionary Command Council, as well as any military men implicated in the affair, would be executed, the officials said. “Al Liwa,” a Beirut daily known •to be close to the Iraqi regime, reported from Bagdad that 36 people had been arrested in connection with the “conspiracy.” The suspects had formed their own “bloc” within the regime several years ago, the newspaper said.