Press syndicate blast, electricity crisis in Baghdad press

BAGHDAD, Sept. 21 (Iraqi News) – An Iraqi newspaper gave prominence in its Sunday issue to the explosive charge attack that ripped through the press syndicate in the capital and wounded several people, including the syndicate’s chief, with two other newspapers focusing on the electricity crisis in the country. The independent daily al-Dustour newspaper published an article entitled ‘Terrorism targets our big home’ by its editor-in-chief, Bassem al-Sheikh. The author of the article said that terrorists have turned to “the defenders of truth” in their recent attack that targeted the press syndicate building, but divine providence has arranged otherwise and protected the journalists. Yesterday, an official source from the syndicate said that an explosive charge planted by unknown men at the entrance of the press syndicate building in Baghdad’s northern area of al-Waziriya detonated at 11:00 a.m. during a syndicate board meeting, slightly wounding a number of civilians, including the syndicate chief, Muayyad al-Lami. “The explosion caused damage to three cars and totally destroyed four others, all belonging to syndicate employees,” the source noted. An official spokesperson for Baghdad Operation Command (BOC) said that the blast mainly targeted Lami, who was slightly injured by shattered glass. “Muayyad al-Lami was in the syndicate’s garden when the explosion occurred,” a spokesperson for the command, Maj. Gen. Qassem Ata, explained, noting that the device was detonated at a close distance. The author called on the security apparatus to find those responsible for the attack and to bring them to justice. Meanwhile, al-Daawa newspaper, the daily mouthpiece of the Islamic Daawa Party- Iraq Organization, published an editorial entitled ‘Maliki…an electricity minister’ in which it commented on the Iraqi Parliament’s hosting of the minister of electricity and its efforts to resolve the electricity crisis in the country. The government has spent billions of dollars on the electricity sector throughout the five years that followed the collapse of the former Iraqi regime. However, it has failed to improve electricity supplies to millions of people throughout the country, the newspaper said. The newspaper urged the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, to sack the electricity minister and to call him to accountability.   SS (I) 1