The Iraqi Interior Ministry has ordered police to round up beggars, vagabonds and mentally disabled people from the streets of Baghdad to prevent them from being used by insurgents as suicide bombers, according to a government spokesman.
The decision came after a series of suicide attacks, including two female bombers who struck pet markets in Baghdad on Feb. 1, killing nearly 100 people. Iraqi and US officials have said the women were mentally disabled and apparently unwitting bombers.
The people detained in the Baghdad sweep will be handed over to governmental institutions 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 told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
"Militant groups, like al-Qaeda in Iraq, have started exploiting these people in a very bad manner to kill innocents 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."
Khalaf was not more specific about how those taken into custody would be selected.
The US military said it understood the Interior Ministry intends to transfer those detained to the Ministry of Work and Social Affairs.