Parl. to summon BOC chief over recent Baghdad blasts

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi parliament decided in a session on Thursday to summon the Baghdad Operations Command (BOC) chief Abboud Qonbor and the 11th Division commander Muzher Shahir to question them over the recent deadly bombings in the Iraqi capital, according to a Kurdish lawmaker. “Qonbor and Shahir will be summoned for explanations about a chain of bombing attacks in Baghdad that left dozens killed or wounded,” Sami al-Atroushi, a member of parliament from the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), told IraqiNews.com news agency. Six explosions ripped through the Iraqi capital on Wednesday (April 29). Two car bomb blasts rocked two outdoor souks (markets) in the predominantly Shiite eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City, killing nine people and wounding 72 others. Three other car bombs were defused inside the district. Two explosive vehicles also went off in the Shiite area of al-Hurriya, but the casualties could not have been known. In the Sunni district of al-Dora, five people were killed and eight others wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast. In Abu Dshir, an area of Shiite majority, security forces defused a car bomb. The Iraqi capital has witnessed escalated acts of violence since the end of last week as more than 130 people were killed and more than 150 others wounded in blasts conducted by suicide bombers in the cities of al-Karada and al-Kadhemiya. Earlier on Thursday (April 30), the Sadrist bloc demanded to have Qonbor and Shahir questioned at parliament on the recent violations in the Iraqi capital, holding al-Qaeda and the Baathists responsible for these acts. Speaking at a press conference, a Sadrist legislator, Falah Shanshal, said the BOC and the command of the 11th division are responsible for protecting Sadr City and consequently they have to be questioned recent security breaches. He demanded the government to get rid of the former Baathists in the security and intelligence services. He also called for activating the police’s role and to control the Sadr City’s inlets to prevent infiltrators from entering it. “The Baath party and al-Qaeda launched several car bomb explosions in Sadr City and al-Hurriya districts as well as other areas in Baghdad on Wednesday (April 29), where 41 people were killed and 60 were wounded,” he added. AmR (S) 1