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About 35 Iraqi interior ministry officials have been arrested in recent days, some accused of plotting the return of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, the New York Times newspaper says.
The report on Wednesday, citing senior security officials in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, said the arrests had taken place over the last three days.
Four generals, including General Ahmed Abu Raqeef, the ministry's director of internal affairs, were among those detained, the newspaper reported.
Officials said that an elite security force that reports directly to Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, carried out the arrest, the report said.
The New York Times quoted senior security officials as saying there was significant evidence tying those arrested to a wide array of political-corruption charges, including affiliation with Al Awda, or the Return, a descendant of the Baath Party.
The Baath Party, which controlled Iraq for 35 years, was outlawed after the US-led invasion in 2003.
A high-ranking interior ministry official reportedly accused those affiliated with al-Awda had paid bribes to other officers and said there could be more arrests.
However, a police officer, who spoke under condition of anonymity said that the officials who had been arrested were innocents civil servants with little connection to each other, the newspaper said.
The New York Times said the police officer had suggested that the arrests were politically motivated.
PHOTO CAPTION
Provincial election posters advertising Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's political list are plastered on a wall in central Baghdad.
Al-Jazeera
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