Army officers behind Baghdad bank heist: ministry

Two Iraqi army officers, including a member of the presidential protection unit, were behind a Baghdad bank heist earlier this week that left eight guards dead, the interior ministry said on Saturday. Spokesman Major General Abdul Karim Khalaf said three people had been arrested and that security forces were hunting other suspects after Tuesday's 4.8-billion-dinar (3.8 million dollar) robbery, one of Iraq's biggest ever. Those in custody were arrested on Thursday, he said. "The main man who carried out the crime is a captain in the Iraqi army, in the presidential protection brigade," Khalaf told a Baghdad news conference. "His name is Jafar Lazim Eshkaya al-Timimi."