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Wathiq al-Battat, the turbaned controversial figure who has been wanted by the judiciary for five months, admitted in a TV appearance on July 11 to carrying out killings and bombings in Baghdad, through a militia called the Mukhtar Army. Iraqi forces then decided to arrest the program’s staff who had conducted the interview, without arresting Battat himself.
This perplexing picture has sparked confusion in Iraq. Battat, who introduced himself to the media as secretary-general of Hezbollah in Iraq, announced in February the formation of a militia designed to kill al-Qaeda members and Baathists, in retaliation for the bombings against Iraq’s Shiite cities.
