Iraq War Update: Responses to the Bombing in Baghdad; Over 150 Killed in 'Green Zone' Explosions

The dead body of a man is carried away from the blast scene after being killed by a massive bomb attack in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

Monday, October 26, 2009
23:40 Mecca time, 20:40 GMT

World leaders condemn Iraq attacks

Sunday's double bombing in Baghdad was the country's deadliest attack in two years

World leaders have joined their Iraqi counterparts in condemning Sunday's double bombing in Baghdad - the deadliest attack in Iraq in two years - and offered their condolences to the Iraqi people.

Up to 155 people were killed and more than 500 injured when two vehicle bombs exploded outside government offices in the Iraqi capital.

Iraqi officials have held the al-Qaeda in Iraq and remnants of the Baathist party responsible for the bombing.

One of the attackers detonated a lorry bomb at a busy intersection near the justice and municipalities ministries, while the other set off a car bomb opposite the nearby Baghdad provincial government offices.

Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, visited the site of the attack on the provincial government office, where he spoke to officials and security officers.

"These cowardly terrorist attacks must not affect the determination of the Iraqi people to continue their struggle against the remnants of the dismantled regime and al-Qaeda terrorists," he said in a statement.

Al-Maliki said the attacks would not affect the political process or parliamentary elections due in January, and promised to punish those behind the bombing.

For his part, Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president, said: "The perpetrators of these treacherous and despicable acts are no longer hiding their objective but to the contrary, they publicly declare that they are targeting the state ... and aiming at blocking the political process, halting it and destroying what we have achieved in the last six years."

'Hateful agenda'

Barack Obama, the US president, said the bombs showed the attackers' "hateful and destructive" agenda.

"I strongly condemn these outrageous attacks on the Iraqi people, and send my deepest condolences to those who have lost loved ones," he in a statement released by the White House.

"These bombings serve no purpose other than the murder of innocent men, women and children, and they only reveal the hateful and destructive agenda of those who would deny the Iraqi people the future that they deserve."

He telephoned both al-Maliki and Talabani to offer his condolences.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said: "These despicable terrorist attacks seek to undermine the impressive progress that Iraq has made towards stability and self-reliance."

She said Washington "will continue to support the people and government of Iraq in fighting terrorism".

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato's secretary-general, condemned as "reprehensible" the attacks, saying in a statement: "On behalf of Nato, I strongly condemn the bombing that occurred ... in Baghdad, which caused huge loss of innocent life".

The European Union's Swedish presidency expressed its disgust, while France offered its "full solidarity" and Britain said the attacks had "no justification".

An Iranian foreign ministry official said: "These terrorist actions aim to wreck stability and the process of reinforcing democratic structures."

The Cairo-based Arab League said it "vehemently condemns the blasts" and that it supports and "Iraqi government plans to impose law and security and to fight violence and terrorism".

Iraqi accusation

Sunday's explosions left streets littered with charred bodies and torn-off limbs, and buildings in ruins.

Ali al-Dabbagh, the Iraqi government spokesman, and Major-General Qassim Atta, spokesman for the Iraqi army's Baghdad operations, both said 99 people had been killed in the attacks.

A senior official in the health ministry, which bases its toll on combined figures from hospitals, confirmed the number of dead and added that more than 700 people were wounded.

Atta said the lorry was carrying one tonne of explosives while the car was packed with 700kg.

"The blasts that took place today hold the fingerprints of al-Qaeda and al-Baath. They are similar to the ones that took place in August," al-Dabbagh said.

Jihad al-Bolani, Iraqi interior minister, said: "The preliminary report presented to me states that today's bombings are connected with the August blasts."

Al-Boulani said that security forces are now trying to hunt down fugitives who were convicted in absentia in the August terror attacks.

They are believed to have a role in Sunday's blasts.

On August 19, some 10 explosions rocked the Iraqi capital, leaving more than 100 dead and 1,200 injured.

The blasts targeted the finance and foreign ministries, the sites of which were not far from Sunday's blasts.

Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish MP in the Iraqi parliament, told Al Jazeera the bombing was a message to Iraqi politicians and foreign investors.

"This sends two messages, one of them is to the investment conference in Washington held just a few days ago as if to tell investors not to come to Iraq ... At the same time I think it may be a message to the meeting today of the political council of national security," he said.

'Electoral strategy'

Othman said: "They are trying to solve the problems concerning the elections law. I hope this will urge them to work more than before to solve this problem."

But Ahmed Rushdi, an Iraqi analyst, said that pointing to al-Qaeda in Iraqi and elements from the Baath party, the party of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader overthrown in the 2003 US invasion, was an electoral strategy.

"Al-Maliki represents the Dawa party, which is [from] the Shia majority, and we have elections in January. He will say ... 'I'm going to protect you from al-Qaeda and pro-Baathists'," he told Al Jazeera.

"It's always al-Qaeda and pro-Baathist [elements that are blamed]. There is no talking about security infiltration, or the security failures in the Iraqi government."

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies


Bombings target government in Baghdad, 147 killed

By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – A pair of suicide car bombings Sunday devastated the heart of Iraq's capital, killing at least 147 people in the country's deadliest attack in more than two years. The bombs targeted two government buildings and called into question Iraq's ability to protect its people as U.S. forces withdraw.

The bombings show that insurgents still have the ability to launch horrific attacks even as violence has dropped dramatically in Iraq. Many fear such attacks will only increase as Iraq prepares for crucial January elections.

The dead included 35 employees at the Ministry of Justice and at least 25 staff members of the Baghdad Provincial Council, said police and medical officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. At least 721 people were wounded, including three American contractors.

The street where the blasts occurred had just been reopened to vehicle traffic six months ago. Shortly after, blast walls were repositioned to allow traffic closer to the government buildings. Such changes were touted by Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as a sign that safety was returning to the city.

The Iraqi leader walked among the mangled and blackened cars, which lay in front of blast walls that had been decorated with peaceful street scenes of Iraq. At the Justice Ministry, windows and walls on both sides of the street were blown away, and blood pooled with water from burst pipes.

Al-Maliki has staked his political reputation and re-election bid on his ability to bring peace to the country and pledged to punish those responsible, who he said wanted to "spread chaos in the country, undermine the political process and prevent the holding of parliamentary elections." But the Sunday attacks seemed designed to paint the Iraqi leader as incapable of providing security to the beleaguered city, undermining much of his political support.

The attacks occurred just hours before Iraq's top leadership was scheduled to meet with heads of political parties in order to reach a compromise on election guidelines needed to hold the January vote.

President Barack Obama, who earlier this week reaffirmed the U.S.'s commitment to withdrawing its troops from the country, called al-Maliki to offer his condolences.

"These bombings serve no purpose other than the murder of innocent men, women and children, and they only reveal the hateful and destructive agenda of those who would deny the Iraqi people the future that they deserve," Obama said.

The fact that the vehicles were able to get into an area home to numerous government institutions — just hundreds of yards from the heavily fortified Green Zone where the U.S. Embassy and the prime minister's office are located — sparked demands that those in charge of the city's security be held accountable.

"Those responsible for security and intelligence should be checked and interrogated," said Sunni Iraqi lawmaker Wathab Shakir. "Why should innocent people be killed?"

The initial investigation suggested the vehicles, each loaded down with more than 1,500 pounds of explosives, might have passed through some security checkpoints before hitting their destination, said Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Mousawi, a spokesman for the city's operations command center.

There have been no claims of responsibility so far, but massive car bombs have been the hallmark of the Sunni insurgents seeking to overthrow the country's Shiite-dominated government. Iraq has accused members of the outlawed Baath Party living in neighboring Syria of being behind another series of deadly bombings in August that also targeted government buildings. Al-Maliki blamed the attacks on Baathist and Al-Qaida.

Black smoke billowed from the frantic scene, as emergency service vehicles sped to the area. Many of the wounded were loaded into the back of trucks and into civilian cars because there were too many for ambulances to carry.

"The walls collapsed and we had to run out," said Yasmeen Afdhal, 24, an employee of the Baghdad provincial administration, which runs the city. "There are many wounded, and I saw them being taken away. They were pulling victims out of the rubble, and rushing them to ambulances."

The provincial council is the city government, which oversees a broad range of city services such as garbage collection, electricity, distribution of fuel for generators and school maintenance.

U.S. troops were also called in at the request of the Iraqi government to help secure the area, deal with any explosive material and offer forensics personnel to assist in the investigation, said a military spokesman, Maj. Dave Shoupe.

The coordinated bombings were the deadliest since a series of massive truck bombs in northern Iraq killed nearly 500 villagers from the minority Yazidi sect in August 2007. In Baghdad itself, it was the worst attack since a series of suicide bombings against Shiite neighborhoods in April 2007 killed 183.

Three American security contractors working for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad were injured in the blasts, said Philip Frayne, an embassy spokesman. Frayne could not immediately provide details about who the contractors were escorting, which company they worked for or the nature of their injuries.

The explosions were just a few hundred yards from Iraq's Foreign Ministry, which is still rebuilding after massive bombings there in August. The bombings were a devastating blow for a country that has seen a dramatic drop in violence since the height of the sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007.

On the streets of Baghdad, many Iraqis were angry at what they described as a lapse in security and wary about what will happen when U.S. forces leave.

"Everyday, we hear statements from different government officials that our forces are ready to control the situation on the ground when the U.S. forces withdraw," Zahid Hussain Najim said. "But day after day it has been found that these officials are either liars or have no idea about what's going on outside their offices."
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Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin, Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Muhieddin Rashad, Mazin Yahya and Barbara Surk contributed to this report.