Family members of a victim who was killed in a suicide bombing grieve at his funeral in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Oct. 26, 2009. On Sunday, at least 147 people were killed and 721 were wounded in two suicide bombings in the country's deadliest attack in more than two years. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
Iraqi security forces blocked streets around the capital Monday and conducted intense searches at checkpoints as authorities investigated the massive security failure that allowed two truck bombs to strike what was supposed to be one of the city’s safest areas.
Fear of more deadly attacks, especially in the run-up to crucial January elections, turned into anger over the government’s failure to keep the country secure.
“Today, we came to work despite the fear inside us,” said Siham Abdul-Karim, 49, an employee of the Culture Ministry located near the site of the bombings and surrounded by police checkpoints on Monday. “We all wonder how could car bombs could reach these institutions.”
The death toll rose to 155 on Monday as Baghdad residents buried the dead. About 500 people were injured, authorities said.
The blasts, which the government said bore the signature of al Qaeda in Iraq, most damaged Baghdad’s provincial headquarters and the nearby federal Ministry of Justice. Many of the protective blast walls surrounding those buildings collapsed.
Family members of a victim who was killed in a suicide bombing grieve at his funeral in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Oct. 26, 2009. On Sunday, at least 147 people were killed and 721 were wounded in two suicide bombings in the country's deadliest attack in more than two years. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited the site of the attacks and blamed al Qaeda and members of the Baath party. His office said in a statement that the explosions were meant to create instability and to stop the January parliamentary elections.
President Barack Obama called the attacks an attempt to “derail Iraq’s progress.” He said the U.S. “will stand with Iraq’s people and government as a close friend and partner as Iraqis prepare for elections early next year.” The president spoke with Mr. Maliki and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani by phone to express his condolences.
The initial investigation suggested the vehicles, each packed with thousands of pounds of explosives, might have passed through some security checkpoints before hitting their destination, said Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for the city’s operations command center. Authorities have said they are also checking security cameras in the area.
Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said 76 people have been arrested so far, but he did not provide information on who they were or how they are believed to be connected to the horrific crimes, which took place just hundreds of yards from the heavily fortified Green Zone.
“This is a terrorist act,” Mr. Bolani said. He called on all the political forces to cooperate and assist the Iraqi security forces.
The timing of the Sunday bombings coincided with plans by Iraq’s top political body, the Political Council for National Security, comprising top political leaders and cabinet ministers, to consider ways to end a stalemate over a crucial election law needed to begin work ahead of the vote. The legislation has stalled over disagreements between factions over how the vote will be conducted in Kirkuk, an oil-rich region in the north torn by sectarian and ethnic tensions among the area’s Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen.
The attacks raised immediate parallels to an August bombing that targeted the ministries of finance and foreign affairs, the latter located about 200 yards away from Sunday’s blasts.
The August attacks, which killed nearly 100 people, shook the confidence of Iraqi security services ahead of a big drawdown of U.S. troops expected next year. While violence has decreased significantly since the height of sectarian warfare in 2006 and 2007, a series of high-profile attacks this year has rattled Iraqi and American officials as they gauge how quickly to draw down U.S. forces. The Obama administration has committed to withdrawing all combat forces by August 2010. A bilateral security pact calls for a complete U.S. military withdrawal by the end of 2011.
The U.S. military has said that it will assess the pace of its drawdown 30 to 60 days after the elections, and that a delayed vote could affect how quickly American forces can pull out of Iraq. A peaceful and successful transition of power could mean an accelerated U.S. withdrawal. About 120,000 American troops currently are in Iraq, and that figure is expected to drop to about 50,000 by August.
“As we’ve said in the past, challenges remain, and the security environment’s importance is heightened as Iraq moves toward its national elections,” U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Stephen Lanza said.
He said it was too early to assess what allowed the attackers to stage the explosions, but “the ultimate retaliation against those who attack Iraq’s forward progress is to hold the elections on time.” Because of the stalled election law, there is concern that the Jan. 16 polls may have to be delayed to give organizers enough time to prepare the vote.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said he couldn’t say yet whether Sunday’s car bombs were related to the August bombings. But he also said that they might have been related to the elections and that they seemed to be the work of al Qaeda and its allies.
The Iraqi al Qaeda is known for using car bombs and suicide bombers; Shiite militants in Iraq largely use rockets and mortars. Naming allies of al Qaeda implies the suspected involvement of foreign fighters coming from neighboring countries such as Syria.
Iraqi officials have blamed the recent, high-profile attacks — including the August bombings — on a variety of forces they accuse of trying to spark fresh sectarian tension. These include Islamist extremists linked to al Qaeda, Sunni insurgents and former Baathists operating out of Syria.
The Iraqi government asked the United Nations for an international investigation into foreign interference related to the August bombings.
Earlier this year, the Iraqi government had been trumpeting the recent decrease in violence. But after the August bombings, officials acknowledged there had been a lapse in security and vowed to redouble their efforts.
After the August attacks, some Iraqis criticized Mr. Maliki as being too confident about security improvements; others suspected the motivation behind those explosions was to make the prime minister look bad. It is unclear how Sunday’s blasts might affect Mr. Maliki’s candidacy in the national elections.
The Iraqi government has vowed to remain steadfast against the violence. It was moving toward removing blast walls and opening up closed-off streets before the August attacks. After those bombings, the government slowed down that effort and it now will likely ease it even further.
Ali Mohammed, who works in the Baghdad governorate offices targeted in the attack, said he was sitting at his desk when the first blast went off. It threw the 45-year-old into the hallway. He said office employees were running and screaming when the second blast hit. His arm was broken, and his head was gashed by flying glass.
“We will see more attacks in the coming days because of the elections, and our security forces can’t seem to do anything about it,” he said as he stared at the billows of smoke coming from his office complex.
Traffic was heavy when the explosions occurred on Sunday around 10:30 a.m. local time, and ambulances and fire trucks struggled to get to the scene. Because of the number of casualties, some of the injured were put into passenger cars and rushed to the city’s hospitals. The main streets around the Baghdad provincial office and justice ministry were closed, and dozens of police vehicles and military Humvees surrounded the area.
Zaineb Rahdi, a clerk at the justice ministry, said she was knocked unconscious from the blast and woke up outside the building. She had cuts of shrapnel and glass across the upper half of her body and was waiting to be taken to the hospital.
“I’m sure politics is involved in this and we are the ones who are suffering for it,” Ms. Rahdi said as she sobbed. “How can we live like this?”
Hours after the blast, security forces were still looking through the rubble for bodies, and the casualty count was expected to rise. Forklifts were removing charred vehicles and other refuse.
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