U.S. Transfer of Hizbullah Fighter to Iraqi Authorities on Hold
Iraq's Justice Ministry said Friday that plans to transfer a top Hizbullah commander who's being held in Baghdad from U.S. to Iraqi custody have been put on hold.
The turnabout comes as 20 U.S. senators ask the Pentagon to take "whatever steps you can" to prevent the transfer out of fear that the militant, Ali Mussa Daqduq, will escape or be released by Iraq's government.
Just two days ago, Justice Ministry spokesman Haidar al-Saadi said the U.S. would transfer custody of Daqduq by the end of this week.
U.S. forces have held Daqduq since his 2007 capture for allegedly cooperating with Iranian agents to train Shiite militias to target American soldiers.
He is one of about 10 detainees whom the U.S. must either prosecute or hand over to Iraq by the end of the year.
In a letter dated Thursday, 20 U.S. senators asked Defense Secretary Leon Panetta "to take whatever steps you can to block Daqduq's transfer to the Iraqi government and out of U.S. custody."
"If he is released from United States custody, there is little doubt that Daqduq will return to the battlefield and resume his terrorist activities against the United States and our interests," the senators wrote in the letter signed by 19 Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman Joe Lieberman, an independent senator from Connecticut, also signed the letter.
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