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Friday, July 31, 2009

Three held over Baghdad robbery

A police car stands outside the Rafidain bank in Baghdad's Karrada district on 28 July, after the robbery there
All eight people killed were bank security guards, police say

Three people have been detained in Iraq in connection with a bank robbery in Baghdad earlier this week, in which eight security guards were killed.

The interior ministry said all the money stolen from the Rafidain bank had been recovered - about $7m (£4m) worth of Iraqi dinars in total.

A tip-off had led police to a house near the bank in the Karrada area of the Iraqi capital, the ministry said.

Police are still searching for a number of other suspects.

Dawn raid

Witness accounts and security camera footage led police to the house belonging to an Iraqi army soldier.

Only his elderly parents were at home when the police arrived.

Tuesday's robbery was one of the biggest Baghdad had ever seen.

The gunmen stormed the bank at dawn, and fired at the security guards, before using dynamite to open the vault where the money was kept.

Security officials said there are links between the armed insurgency and organised crime in Iraq.

Questions have been raised about whether the robbers had help from an inside source.

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