Baghdad: Iraqi security forces have been ordered to round-up mentally ill people and vagrants after fears they could be exploited by militants and used in attacks.
The crackdown on people on the street began on Tuesday, with the Iraqi interior ministry confirming a small number of people had been detained so far.
Those detained will be taken to psychiatric hospitals or returned to their families.
The move follows claims that a recent double suicide bomb attack on a crowded market in the Iraqi capital was inadvertently carried out by two mentally ill women who did not know what they were doing.
Around 100 people died in the blasts at a pet market in January and an administrator at a Baghdad psychiatric hospital has since been detained in connection with the attacks.
Maj-Gen Abdul Karim Khalaf said: "Militant groups, like al-Qaeda in Iraq, have started exploiting these people in a very bad manner to kill innocents as they do not raise suspicions.
"These groups are either luring those who are desperate for money to help them in their attacks or making use of their poor mental condition to use them as suicide bombers.''
