Region | Iraq
Iraq shows bomber's confession
An Iraqi official yesterday showed a video of what he said was a supporter of late dictator Saddam Hussain's Baath party confessing to organising one of the truck bomb blasts last week in which 95 people died.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:04 August 23, 2009
Baghdad: An Iraqi official yesterday showed a video of what he said was a supporter of late dictator Saddam Hussain's Baath party confessing to organising one of the truck bomb blasts last week in which 95 people died.
The man, who appeared oddly calm for someone accused of taking part in the bloodiest attack of the year in Iraq, said he had orchestrated the bombing together with a leader of a branch of the now outlawed Baath party who was living in Syria.
"A month ago Sattam Farhan ... called from Syria and asked me to conduct a bombing operation to shake the administration," said the bald and moustachioed man, described as a former police chief named Wissam Ali Kadhim Ebrahim.
"He said that if you can't do it, we have other factions that can."
Many Saddam loyalists fled to Syria after the fall of Saddam in 2003, and Iraqi officials frequently blame neighbouring countries for fomenting violence in Iraq.
Baghdad security spokesman Qassim Al Moussawi, who showed the video to the media, had previously announced the arrest of a group of Baathists he alleged were responsible for Wednesday's bombings, which devastated the foreign and finance ministries.
His office said yesterday shortly after the taped confession was aired that every police officer manning checkpoints on the day of the blasts between Baghdad and Diyala province, where the prisoner said the attack was put together, had been arrested.
The bombings, in which more than 1,000 people were wounded, many by glass from the ministries' shattered windows, dealt a blow to Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki's claim ahead of an election in January to have presided over a fall in violence.
They also shook public confidence in the Iraqi security forces, six weeks after US troops pulled out of urban centres and handed primary responsibility for defending the population against insurgent attacks to domestic troops and police.
It was difficult to ascertain the veracity of the confession and of the detentions connected with the bombings.
The government has often trumpeted the arrests of major terrorism suspects only to be proven wrong. The announcement that the culprits behind Wednesday's explosions had been arrested on the same day as the bombings was only made after two days of intense criticism of Iraqi security forces.
Al Moussawi said other confessions from the network allegedly behind the blasts would be shown to Iraqis in coming days after the conclusion of investigations by judges.
In the video, the man did not mention trucks or the foreign ministry. He hinted at collusion by someone in the security forces.
"I called someone in Muqdadiya (in Diyala province) to ease the passage of the car through checkpoints to Baghdad. He asked for $10,000," the man said.
"A person called Sattar called me from Baghdad and told me that a car had been prepared in Khalis (in Diyala). I sent this person (from Muqdadiya) to Khalis who brought the car to Baghdad ... and it exploded outside the finance ministry."
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