Iraq detains security officers after carnage in Baghdad
Iraqi officials are questioning 11 security officers about security failures that resulted in the bloodiest day in Baghdad in more than a year.
The Iraqi government raised the death toll from Wednesday’s Baghdad bomb and mortar attacks to at least 100. More than 500 other people were wounded.
An Iraqi army spokesman said there are regulations instructing security officers to prohibit trucks of the sort that exploded Wednesday from approaching government ministries.
But even the tightened security Thursday failed to prevent another bombing in the Iraqi capital. Officials say a bomb strapped to a bicycle killed two people and wounded at least 10 in central Baghdad.
After Wednesday’s bloodshed, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki vowed an immediate re-evaluation of the government’s security methods.Yesterday two truck bombs exploded minutes apart outside the foreign ministry and finance ministry. Iraqi police say either mortar or rocket attacks hit other government buildings and commercial areas in the capital.
In an interview with the Voice of America, Deputy Interior Minister Hussein Ali Kamal blamed the attacks on “al-Qaida fighters and remnants of Iraq’s Baathist regime of the late Saddam Hussein.”
Read More:
Reuters: Q&A-Iraq stunned by huge bombs- What’s gone wrong?
BBC: Iraq attacks threaten stability claims
Washington Post: Massive blasts target government offices in Iraq