Iraqi Interior Ministry orders police to round up beggars, mentally disabled to foil al-Qaida

~ Those detained will be handed over to social welfare institutions and psychiatric hospitals

BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi Interior Ministry ordered police on Tuesday to begin rounding up beggars, homeless and mentally disabled people from the streets of Baghdad and other cities to prevent insurgents from using them as suicide bombers.

The decision, which elicited concern from advocates for the mentally disabled, came nearly three weeks after twin suicide bombings against pet markets. Officials said those blasts were carried out by mentally disabled women.

The U.S. military and the Iraqi government have claimed that Sunni insurgents led by al-Qaida in Iraq are increasingly trying to use Iraq's most vulnerable populations as suicide bombers to avoid raising suspicions or being searched at checkpoints that guard access to many markets, neighborhoods and bridges in the capital.

The people detained in the Baghdad sweep will be handed over to social welfare institutions and psychiatric hospitals that can provide shelter and care for them, Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said.

"This will be implemented nationwide starting today," Khalaf said.

"Militant groups, like al-Qaida in Iraq, have started exploiting these people in the worst way to kill innocent victims because they do not raise suspicions," Khalaf said. "These groups are either luring those who are desperate for money to help them in their attacks or making use of their poor mental condition to use them as suicide bombers."

However, it is not clear that such people would be safe in psychiatric hospitals. American and Iraqi troops recently detained the acting director of the al-Rashad psychiatric hospital in eastern Baghdad on suspicion of helping supply patient information to al-Qaida in Iraq.

The U.S. military has linked the insurgents' willingness to use women or children as suicide bombers with their attempts to bounce back from losses in recent U.S.-led offensives.

The military said this week that attacks across Iraq have dropped more than 60 percent in the year since a joint campaign to cut down their influence began last February. But U.S. commanders have warned that al-Qaida in Iraq is a resilient foe and acknowledged they have been unable to stop the group's signature suicide attacks.

While concrete barriers have reduced the effectiveness of car bombings in the capital, a series of suicide attacks by female bombers has deepened concern.

Women often aren't searched at checkpoints because of a dearth of female guards. As a result, police said 1,000 female officers will be deployed among the pilgrims massing in the Shiite holy city of Karbala for a major pilgrimage next week.

The Iraqi claim that mentally disabled women were used in the Feb. 1 pet market bombings was met initially with skepticism. Iraqi authorities said they based the assertion on photos of the bombers' heads that purportedly showed the women had Down syndrome, and did not offer any other proof.

However, the director of the Ibn-Rushd psychiatric teaching hospital in central Baghdad, Dr. Shalan al-Abboudi, said that one of the pet market bombers, a 36-year-old married woman, had been treated there for schizophrenia and depression, according to her file. Refusing to identify her, he said she received electric shock therapy and was released into the custody of an aunt.

The U.S. military said it understood the Interior Ministry intends to transfer those taken into custody to the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry.

"We are aware of the Ministry of Interior's efforts to try and protect homeless and mentally impaired citizens from becoming the unwitting victims of al-Qaida in Iraq," Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a military spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement.

It was not clear how the plan could be implemented in a capital city of more than 5 million people who have grown used to maintaining a low profile and often hiding their identity during nearly five years of bloodshed.

The targets could include women shrouded in traditional Islamic black robes and headscarves who sit on the pavement of public squares or roam around the stalls of open-air markets to beg for money.

Laurie Ahern, the associate director of the Washington, D.C.-based Mental Disability Rights International, expressed concern that Iraqi authorities might be casting "an awful wide net."

She noted that insurgents were recruiting women and children in increasing numbers -- but said no one should suggest detaining them.

"To round up a group of people based on a disability ... I'm not sure that's the best way to handle the situation," Ahern said in a telephone interview.

Ahern added that given the traumas of the U.S.-led invasion and subsequent violence, many Iraqis could be considered mentally vulnerable.

Khalaf was not more specific about how police would choose their targets. He said beggars and homeless people 18 years or older would be placed in the custody of the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, while people with mental problems would be taken to psychiatric hospitals.

He also said those determined to be professional beggars would be prosecuted.

Mohammad Hadi, a 28-year-old Finance Ministry employee, welcomed the idea of clamping down on the street people.

"If they were left free, the terrorists might exploit their condition for attacks," he said. "But while I am happy with the Interior Ministry's campaign against such people, I do believe that police must respect their human rights and take them to a safe, comfortable place."

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Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin and Saad Abdul-Kadir in Baghdad and Raphael G. Satter in London contributed to this report.