Attacks aim to destabilize security, hamper negotiations – politicians

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A number of Iraqi politicians agreed that the recent bombing attacks in Baghdad last Tuesday aimed to destabilize security in the country and to hamper the ongoing negotiations between political blocs to end the current deadlock. “These terrorist attacks were not organized by local bodies only, but there are regional countries have interest from this political vacuum in the country and the delay in forming the government,” Mahmoud Othman, a leader from the Kurdistan Coalition, told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The blasts want to affect and weaken the international gathering of the Baghdad International Fair, in order to show Iraq as an insecure country,” he explained, underlining that they want to affect the intensified efforts to form the government. “The Iraqi government and security authorities have to reconsider the security situation in order to avoid such incidents in the future,” he said. Baghdad had witnessed on Tuesday (Nov. 2) several attacks by car bombs, explosive charges and sticky bombs, during which 64 persons were killed, and 360 were wounded, according to an official figure announced by the health ministry. The bombings followed by a curfew in the capital as a precautionary measure to prevent further attacks. For his side, Jalal al-Din al-Saghier, a leader from the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), said that “we are not astonished from the terrorists’ behavior and their attacks against civilians.” “What made us sad was the security authorities’ performance, which did not live up to citizens’ expectations,” he noted. “Terrorist groups find a suitable atmosphere within the current deadlock and the disagreement among political blocs, which encourage them to carry out their attacks,” member of al-Iraqiyah List, Jamal al-Batiekh told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The way the security forces dealt with the Our Lady of Salvation church incident was wrong due to lack of experience and coordination between authorities,” the politician continued. “The lack of coordination confused their work and led the whole situation to go out of control,” he said. A group of armed men broke through Our Lady of Salvation Church in central Baghdad’s Karrada district last Sunday, taking dozens of Christian worshippers who were attending a mass captive and demanded the release of al-Qaeda detainees in Iraq and Egypt, according to a statement by the Baghdad Operations Command. The attack claimed 58 lives, including 5 of the attackers and 7 security men, whilst the other victims were Christian citizens. The number of wounded reached 75, including 15 Army and police men; the rest had been Christian civilians. SH (I)/SR 126