BAGHDAD – Iraq arrested dozens of security officials over bombings that killed 155 people and promised to arrest more security officers suspected of colluding with the bombers or dereliction of duty, an official said yesterday.
Two high-profile attacks over the last two months have raised pressure on Iraq’s developing military and police, which are taking over security from US troops as Washington draws down ahead of an eventual pull-out in 2011.
Baghdad security spokesman Maj Gen Qassim al-Moussawi said that Iraqi forces had seized 11 high-ranking military and police officials, 50 policemen and all the police officers in charge of 15 checkpoints near where Sunday’s bombings occurred.
The men would be investigated to see if they had any involvement in the attacks or had failed at their jobs.
Gen Moussawi said that officers, foot soldiers and police in areas where attacks happen would be arrested in the future and placed under investigation.
“The investigative committee decided to arrest leaders responsible for security checkpoints if security violations [in their area] happen in the future,” he said.
Iraq frequently arrests members of the police and military forces after major attacks, but it has not been an official policy before.
Suicide bombers linked to al-Qaeda struck two government buildings in Baghdad on Sunday, killing people and ripping through cars and buildings in the area, prompting a wave of public anger directed at the security forces.
A previous attack on August 19th against the finance and foreign ministries killed nearly 100 people and prompted a rare admission of culpability from the security forces.
Meanwhile electoral authorities and US officials urged the Iraqi parliament yesterday to overcome disagreements over the disputed city of Kirkuk and pass a law needed for elections to take place next year.
The election law has been mired in a dispute over how to conduct the vote in Kirkuk, a city sitting on vast oil resources that ethnic Kurds claim as their ancestral home and want wrapped into their semi-autonomous northern enclave.
Kirkuk’s Arabs and Turkmen oppose Kurdish aims however.
– (Reuters)
