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An Iraqi court Thursday sentenced to death 11 men, including al Qaeda militants, over devastating truck bombs in Baghdad that killed more than 100 people in August and dealt a harsh blow to the government. The trial was the first to convict suspects arrested in the wake of three major attacks in the second half of 2009 that saw insurgents defy the war-torn country's fledgling security forces and penetrate the heart of the capital.
"They are sentenced to death for the crime they planned," Ali Abdul Sattar, president of the criminal court, said at a hearing in the Iraqi capital. The August 19 attacks just minutes apart outside the ministries of finance and foreign affairs was an embarrassing security breach and caused massive destruction, left 106 people dead and wounded around 600 others.
Those convicted on Thursday included Salim Abed Jassim who confessed that he received funding for the attacks from Brigadier General Nabil Abdul Rahman, a senior army officer during the rule of Saddam Hussein now living in Syria. Also sentenced to death by hanging were Ishaq Mohammed Abbas, an al Qaeda in Iraq leader and his brother Mustapha, the court official told AFP.
Both men had once been detained but were later released from Camp Bucca, a now closed US-run prison in the southern city of Basra. "These men were the brains behind the attacks in August," a security official involved in an investigation into the bombings told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The August 19 truck attacks on what was dubbed "Black Wednesday" marked Iraq's worst day of violence in 18 months and prompted outrage among citizens at how insurgents had been able to commit such atrocities. Dozens of members of the security forces were later arrested for alleged dereliction of duty but have yet to face trial. All 11 men found guilty on Thursday have 30 days to appeal the judgement.
Violence in Iraq dropped dramatically in 2009 to its lowest level since the 2003 invasion, figures showed on January 1, but a monitoring group warned that security gains were levelling off. According to an AFP tally of statistics released by the defence, interior and health ministries, a total of 2,800 civilians were killed by violence last year, less than half of 2008's toll of 5,886.
Iraq Body Count (IBC), an independent Britain-based group, however, put the civilians toll at 4,497 and said while there had been "significant improvements" in security in 2009, "such violence still afflicts Iraq's population more than any other." The second half of 2009 saw around the same number of civilian deaths as the first, which IBC said "may indicate that the situation is no longer improving."

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010

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