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7 killed in attack on Iraqi interior ministry as ethnic turmoil grows
Source: Agencies |
December 27, 2011, Tuesday
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AT least seven people were killed when a suicide car bomber hit Iraq's interior ministry yesterday, in the latest attack since a crisis erupted between the Shiite-led government and Sunni leaders a week ago.
Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sought the arrest of the Sunni vice president last Monday and asked parliament to fire his own Sunni deputy, triggering turmoil that threatens new sectarian strife just after the last US troops withdrew.
The blast occurred when the bomber drove his vehicle into a security cordon outside the ministry in central Baghdad, detonating an explosion that left dead and wounded on the ground and set fire to nearby vehicles, police said.
A senior police source said authorities believed insurgents were targeting the interior ministry because of the announcement of the arrest warrant for Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, charged with running death squads.
Taped confessions of suspects the ministry said were Hashemi's bodyguards were aired on state-run Iraqiya television and other local media and linked the vice president to killings and attacks on Iraqi government and security officials.
"This is a direct message to us because we arrested Tareq al-Hashemi's network and we are the ones who should preserve security in the country," said Ali al-Quraishi, a police lieutenant who monitors checkpoints around Baghdad.
The attack on Bab al-Sharji street followed a wave of explosions on Thursday, in mainly Shiite areas across the capital in which at least 72 people were killed.
Seven people, including five policemen, were killed and 34 others, including seven policemen, were wounded in yesterday's attack on the interior ministry, police and hospital sources said.
"When I went outside I found my colleagues, some were killed, others were on the ground and many cars were burned," police guard Zaid Raheem said.
"The police officer in the watchtower looked like he was killed when he was hit in the head,"
Hashemi has left Baghdad for semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan.
The turmoil threatens to scuttle an uneasy power-sharing government that splits posts among the Shiite National Alliance coalition, the mostly Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc and the Kurdish political movement.
US forces withdrew fully from Iraq after nine years on December 18.
Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sought the arrest of the Sunni vice president last Monday and asked parliament to fire his own Sunni deputy, triggering turmoil that threatens new sectarian strife just after the last US troops withdrew.
The blast occurred when the bomber drove his vehicle into a security cordon outside the ministry in central Baghdad, detonating an explosion that left dead and wounded on the ground and set fire to nearby vehicles, police said.
A senior police source said authorities believed insurgents were targeting the interior ministry because of the announcement of the arrest warrant for Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, charged with running death squads.
Taped confessions of suspects the ministry said were Hashemi's bodyguards were aired on state-run Iraqiya television and other local media and linked the vice president to killings and attacks on Iraqi government and security officials.
"This is a direct message to us because we arrested Tareq al-Hashemi's network and we are the ones who should preserve security in the country," said Ali al-Quraishi, a police lieutenant who monitors checkpoints around Baghdad.
The attack on Bab al-Sharji street followed a wave of explosions on Thursday, in mainly Shiite areas across the capital in which at least 72 people were killed.
Seven people, including five policemen, were killed and 34 others, including seven policemen, were wounded in yesterday's attack on the interior ministry, police and hospital sources said.
"When I went outside I found my colleagues, some were killed, others were on the ground and many cars were burned," police guard Zaid Raheem said.
"The police officer in the watchtower looked like he was killed when he was hit in the head,"
Hashemi has left Baghdad for semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan.
The turmoil threatens to scuttle an uneasy power-sharing government that splits posts among the Shiite National Alliance coalition, the mostly Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc and the Kurdish political movement.
US forces withdrew fully from Iraq after nine years on December 18.
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