Iraqi security officials held in blast aftermath
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BAGHDAD — Iraq detained dozens of security officials responsible for protecting the Baghdad district where twin suicide bombings this week killed 155 people, and authorities said Thursday they are trying to determine whether they were negligent or even had a role in the attack.
The blasts in the heart of the capital infuriated Iraqis, who question how the bombers could have driven their deadly cargo undetected through the multiple checkpoints that dot Baghdad. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government, facing a January election, has been under intense pressure to restore a sense of security and show that the military and police are able to take over when Americans go home.
A military spokesman for the Iraqi capital, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, told The Associated Press that 11 army officers and 50 security officials have been taken into custody over Sunday's bombings, which targeted the Justice Ministry and the Baghdad Provincial Administration.
The suspects were detained because they were responsible for protecting the area where the bombings occurred, al-Moussawi said. He said the investigation will determine whether they were simply negligent or actually helped the insurgents.
"If the investigation results show that other security officials were also negligent or helped the insurgents, we will arrest them," he said.
Other suspects have been detained, but al-Moussawi said specifically that these were the first arrests of security officials in relation to the Sunday blasts. The military commander and the police chief of Baghdad's Salhiya district, where the bombs went off, were among those arrested, al-Moussawi said. He refused to give information about the other suspects.
Iraqi officials have already said that the two vehicles likely pass through a number of checkpoints before detonating. Traffic in the capital has been snarled for days after the blast as authorities tightened checkpoints, and flooded the city with security reinforcements.
But many Iraqis, jaded by years of attacks, questioned whether the government was really going after the guilty or simply trying to show it is taking some sort of action.
Mouaid Saied, a 34-year old construction worker who lives in eastern Baghdad, said the people who've been arrested are simply easy targets who don't have the political patronage to protect themselves.
"They want to hold them responsible for the last bombings and show that they are solving the problem and finding the perpetrators," Saied said. "The government should find better ways to protect its citizens."
Lawmaker Sheik Khalaf Al-Ilyan, the head of the Sunni political faction in parliament, called for greater openness in the investigation, saying that Iraqis want more oversight and transparency of such security inquiries.
"I think this is a very dangerous step," he said of the arrests.
Al-Qaida's umbrella group in Iraq has claimed responsibility for Sunday's bombings. The Iraqi prime minister blamed the bloodshed on Baathists and al-Qaida. Iraqi officials have said the blasts were carried out by the same network that carried out bombings in August that also targeted government institutions, killing about 100 people.
Al-Maliki rode to popularity as a leader who was able to bring peace to a shattered country. Violence in the country has dropped dramatically in recent years, but the new attacks in areas that are supposed to be some of the safest in the capital have undermined Iraqis' sense of security.
Tim Brown, an intelligence and military analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, questioned whether the truth would ever come out of such an investigation. Trials are usually secret, he said, if the suspects go to trial at all.
"All this makes it difficult to determine if those detained are actually scapegoats or whether they are in fact responsible for those acts," he said.
News of the arrests comes as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he is sending a senior U.N. official to Baghdad in response to a request from Iraq's prime minister for an investigation into the August suicide bombings.
The U.N. leader said he decided to send the envoy before Sunday's bombings.
Meanwhile, Kurdish lawmakers Thursday boycotted a parliament session that was to tackle the crucial law needed for January's nationwide balloting. The election law has been held up over whether to use voter lists that favor the Kurds or the Arabs in the city of Kirkuk, which is claimed by Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen.
The city's Arab and Turkmen ethnic groups resent what they perceive as Kurdish efforts to take over Kirkuk, which Kurds see as historically theirs and describe as their "Jerusalem."
Next to Sunni-Shiite tensions in Iraq, the issue of Kirkuk and Kurdish-Arab disputes has become a key flashpoint in this fragile nation. A political deadlock now could delay the elections and open the way for new violence and instability.
Associated Press writers Barbara Surk, Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Saad Abdul-Kadir contributed to this report.
Source: The Associated Press
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