Iraqi police have pulled off their largest haul since the US-led invasion, netting more than 525 suspected murderers, kidnappers and thieves in a single day as part of a plan to clean up Baghdad's streets, officials said on Tuesday.
Crime soared during the US-led occupation as convicts, released by former president Saddam Hussein, roamed free and a violent insurgency sprung up.
"This is the largest operation for the interior ministry since the fall of Saddam Hussein," said Colonel Adnan Abdul Rhaman, the interior ministry's chief spokesman, referring to the coordinated raid on Monday afternoon.
"About 500 criminals were arrested, suspected of crimes such as stealing, murder, kidnapping and drug-selling," he said.
Pushed for more precise numbers, the spokesman said: "It was more than 525 but less than 550."
Some 500 Iraqi police carried out Monday's operation in the downtown district of Bab el-Sheikh as part of an interior ministry plan to crack down on professional gangs who have terrorised the neighbourhood, explained Rhaman.
There was no help from US soldiers who maintain a heavy presence in the capital even after the transfer of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government a fortnight ago, the spokesman said.
The suspects, all Iraqis, were being held for questioning at a Baghdad police department, he said, noting that most were criminals who had been arrested during the old regime and pardoned by Saddam on the eve of the war.
"Most of the people we caught yesterday were professional crooks," he said.
Police colonel Daud Suleiman, in charge of the hotspot patch, said one person was killed during the sweep.
"Several criminals, including women, were arrested and one of them was killed while trying to resist police," he recalled.
Kidnapping in particular has spiked in Iraq over the past 15 months, as common crooks, not linked to the terror networks that have beheaded foreign hostages for political reasons, snatch ordinary Iraqis for ransom.
In the past week alone Baghdad police have rescued four Iraqis, including an 11-year-old child, who had been kidnapped and held for money.
"One policeman was injured as well as two of the abductors while they were freeing the 11-year-old child," said Suleiman, adding that the two suspects were under guard at a local hospital.
A US advisor to the interior ministry recently admitted that violent crime had increased since last year's US-led invasion to topple Saddam.
"The number of crimes in Baghdad, both murder and major property crimes, may be higher than pre-war levels," the official said, while noting that an accurate comparison of the post-war pre-war scenario was difficult to measure due to uncertainty over the accuracy of crime data during the regime.
Colonel Suleiman attributed the rise in theft, murder and abduction to the insecurity that arose during the US-led occupation and unemployment. He said in Baghdad alone the jobless rate among the young was close to 75 percent.
The large number of weapons stored in people's homes was another factor, the police chief added.
Underlining the danger that lurks on the streets of the Iraqi capital, the police colonel said seven bombs have been discovered and diffused in his sector alone in the past week while three others had exploded.
In addition, two hand grenades were lobbed at a US patrol driving through the city on Tuesday morning but they failed to cause any injuries or damage.
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