Deadly bomb attacks in Baghdad
The deadly bomb attacks in Baghdad woke the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri Al-Maliki. He has reorganized the leadership of the country’s security forces. On Wednesday Lieutenant-General Ahmed Hashem Awoudeh, the deputy army chief of staff, and Lieutenant-General Abboud Qanbar, the head of Baghdad security were commanded to exchange positions. On Tuesday across the Iraqi capital at least 127 people were killed and around 500 wounded in five co-ordinated attacks that targeted government institutions. The US-based Search for International Terrorist Entities (Site) intelligence group reported on Wednesday, an Al-Qaeda group in Iraq allegedly claimed responsibility for the bombings.
A statement on an extremist website forum issued by the Islamic state of Iraq reported that it was carried out the string of car bombings. The statement posted on Wednesday said, “The list of targets will not end, with permission from Allah, until the flag of monotheism is raised once against on the land of Baghdad and the sharia of Allah rules the land and the worshipers.”
It was announced that national elections would be held in March, where the latest attacks in the large-scale bombings were taken place on Tuesday. The senior security officials were not asked to break in action by Al-Maliki, who has been running for re-election on a platform of improved security. But he has come up against a situation where a number of people are expressing violently over the attacks and a lack of response could cost him and his party votes. On Wednesday he said that the security strategies would be reviewed and further personnel changes would be possibly made and requested the Iraqis to be patient. All of his ministers would be held responsible for allowing Tuesday’s attacks to occur; he said and also addressed, “I call on the Iraqi people for more patience and steadfastness.” Al-Maliki also made a yell declaration on politicians “to avoid using these disasters to create conflicts during the election campaign because if the temple falls, it falls on everyone, and no one will be spared”.
On Thursday, where MPs asked strongly his security ministers answer for breaking up the action that allowed for the attacks, the prime minister was expected to attend a special parliamentary session. Mahmud Othman, an independent Kurdish MP, told the AFP news agency, “MPs are angry, and the people are even angrier, we want to know what is going on. What is the security plan? Have they revised the plans since the explosions in August and October? What are the results of their investigations? Why do these explosions keep happening?”
Suicide bombings at government buildings In August and October more than 250 people were dead in suicide bombings at government buildings. With the two previous attacks, the group that was accused of masterminding Tuesday’s bombings by the government who has also called on security officials to step down. Khudair al-Murshidi, a spokesman for the Baath party from Syria said, “He who cannot ensure security for Iraqis should leave.” He made a further comment that the loyalists to Saddam Hussein’s party were not behind any of the attacks.
In the wake of Tuesday’s attacks the roads around Baghdad were reopened on Wednesday after being barred but the security was beefed up at checkpoints across the city. However the violence continued in and around the capital. On Wednesday, a roadside bomb killed two people and wounded seven while a gunman killed a policeman and a bomb hidden inside a minibus killed two people and wounded 11, in the predominantly Sunni northern district of Adhamiyah. Another bomb concealed inside a minibus killed three people and injured eight, in Mahmudiyah, an ethnically mixed town just south of Baghdad.
Al-Maliki called on Iraq’s neighbours an apparent reference to Syria to do more to prevent attacks in Iraq. He also blamed Tuesday’s co-ordinate attacks on “foreign elements” that backed Al-Qaeda. He said, “I demand of the international community and all countries, including neighboring countries, which condemn the attacks to turn their words into actions and support the Iraqi people and the Iraqi government by confronting terrorism.” Syria denies the claim and was previously accused by Baghdad of harboring senior Baath party loyalists who masterminded the attacks in August and October.
The bombers were backed by groups in Syria or Saudi Arabia and the explosives used in Tuesday’s attacks were manufactured abroad, a senior Iraqi policeman said. Major-General Jihad al-Jaabiri, the chief of the explosives unit told the reporters, “This material could not have been manufactured in Baghdad, it came from abroad.” Neighbouring countries helped them. The operation required lots of funding, which came from Syria or Saudi Arabia.” Being the fewest since the 2003 invasion with the 122 deaths achieved, Violence across Iraq had dropped dramatically in November. In the run-up to the March election the Iraqi government and the US military have warned of a rise in attacks. While the latest attacks marked interest over the readiness of Iraqi forces to handle security alone when US troops leave. They will not crash the plans to begin withdrawing US troops from Iraq next year, said Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.