Leader of militant group which killed 12 Nepalis in Iraq held

KATHMANDU, Jan 12: Iraqi security forces have captured the leader of a Sunni Arab militant group which abducted and subsequently murdered 12 Nepali workers in cold blood in 2004 in Iraq, according to Reuters news agency.

Reuters said the Iraqi forces arrested Thayer Kadhim al-Suraiwi, commander of the militant group known as Ansar al-Sunna, last month in west Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. [break]

The news has quoted Baghdad forces spokesperson Qassim al-Moussawi as saying Thayer also confessed to receiving support from several Iraqi politicians, so far unnamed pending investigation. "We have the names of those helping this terrorist. They work inside Iraq and unfortunately some of them are part of the political process," said Qassim. "Their aim is to shake stability."

The militant group had posted the video of the 12 Nepalis murders, tricked by agents to go to Iraq for employment through illegal channels, on their website. The video showed an Iraqi militant beheading one of the men with a knife and shooting 11 others in the back as they lay face down. The video carried the sounds of moaning and high-pitched wheezing.

The murders sparked arson, riots and vandalism of manpower agency offices, mosques, media houses and vehicles across the country. In the ensuing violence, at least two people were killed, and about four-dozen others were injured.

Reuters quoted Qassim as saying Thayer was also behind bomb attacks and assassinations between 2006 and 2008, including a vehicle bomb-blast in a crowded market in Baghdad which killed scores of people. The militant commander was also wanted for the murder of 17 off-duty policemen in mid-2006. He had support from armed groups in neighboring countries, said the spokesman, without naming any.

Acting on a lawsuit filed against Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), a Houston-based company (US) and its subcontractor (Daoud & Partners, based in Jordan) accusing the companies of being behind the transportation of the Nepali workers to Iraq, the US Administrative Law Court has ordered the recruiting company to pay monthly compensation to the families of the dead. The US Court ordered the company to provide a monthly payment of 233 US dollars compensation to each spouse and set of parents of the murdered 12 Nepalese hostages, with an additional 75 dollars for those men who had children.

The lawsuit, filed by Matthew Handley of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll law firm, said one of the lead vehicles was ahead of the convoy transporting the Nepali workers to Iraq from Jordon, and was stopped by insurgents posing as Iraqi Police. Twelve of the Nepali men were then taken by insurgents and later murdered.

tilak@myrepublica.com