The US military is questioning some of its soldiers over the alleged theft of part of a multi-million-dollar haul of cash found in Baghdad, a spokesman at Central Command said today.
"We have questioned soldiers involved with the disappearance of monies found in Iraq on April 18th," Lieutenant Mark Kitchens said. "At this point we believe money was taken."
He declined to say how many soldiers were under investigation or how much money had allegedly been stolen.
"All money found is the property of the Iraqi people," Lt Kitchens said. "The riches of the nation of Iraq, whether money, oil or art, belong to the people and we intend to ensure they get it."
Members of the US 3rd Infantry Division stumbled on the cash, which amounted to more than $650 million in total, during an action to stop the looting which swept parts of the Iraqi capital when Saddam was toppled.
The money was stashed in a building whose windows had been bricked up to provide a hiding place, the US military said. News reports said the money may have belong to members of Saddam's feared Baath Party.
Lt Kitchens said unit commanders involved in the discovery of the cash had noticed some of the money was missing during the search operation. "The thefts to date were uncovered in a matter of hours," Kitchens said.
He said officers from the military's criminal investigation division had been called in to investigate the allegations of theft, the latest embarrassment for the US military which has been criticized for not doing enough to protect valuable artifacts in Baghdad's main museum.
On Wednesday US officials said they had charged one former Fox News employee and were investigating some returning journalists after seizing 15 paintings, gold-plated guns and other items taken from Iraq and smuggled into the United States.
In the past week, US customs and immigration officials have seized paintings taken from the palace of one of Saddam Hussein's sons, found a cache of gold-plated weapons taken from an Iraqi government facility and confiscated Iraqi bonds, knives and other spoils of war.
Most of the people caught smuggling the items were reporters returning from covering the war in Iraq. But the gold-plated weapons were believed to have been looted by a member of the US military and were in a shipment bound for a US military base in Fort Stewart, Georgia.