Government denies graft sweep is tied to Zaidi’s Washington trip

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s government said Monday its anti-corruption campaign was a purely Iraqi effort with no foreign involvement, rejecting suggestions that the operation was timed to Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s coming visit to Washington, and announced a dedicated treasury account to hold assets recovered from those implicated.

Government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi put the number arrested at 21, with others still being pursued, a lower figure than the 47 the state news agency has reported.

Aboudi said Zaidi had ordered the Finance Ministry to set up the account to receive recovered funds, part of what he called a comprehensive push to protect public money through institutional reform. Continuing confessions, he said, were leading investigators toward “a network of details at the level of names and funds.”

He denied any link between the campaign, which the government calls “Dawn Strike” and which has also been referred to as the “Green Zone Dawn” operation, and Zaidi’s planned trip to Washington. The campaign was an Iraqi initiative carried out without any international party, he said.

The remarks follow Sunday’s pre-dawn operation, when armored vehicles, tanks and Counter Terrorism Service units sealed the Green Zone before security forces began arresting current and former officials in a widening corruption investigation. The state news agency has reported 47 arrests and published 15 names it said were detained on the basis of confessions by detained Deputy Oil Minister Adnan al-Jumaili. The Federal Integrity Commission, a state body, said it was executing judicial arrest warrants against people accused of misusing public funds, but named no one and gave no total. 964media could not independently verify the figures.

Zaidi called the campaign only its “first phase” on Sunday and said the government would press on “to combat corruption and recover public funds.” “The situation can no longer be ignored,” he said, pledging that “public funds are protected by capable guardians and will be managed responsibly.”

Jumaili, who served as deputy oil minister for extraction affairs, was detained earlier this month over alleged financial irregularities in the oil sector. Authorities have disclosed little beyond confirming he remains in custody, though state media has repeatedly linked the arrests to confessions made during his interrogation.