An Iraqi army spokesman said Thursday that 61 security force members including 11 officers have been arrested over twin bombings in Baghdad that killed 153 people, many of them badly disfigured. Those arrested were deployed in the Salhiya section of the capital where the suicide attackers on Sunday blasted government buildings and wrought havoc in the streets, said General Qasim Atta, spokesman for Baghdad military command.
"The commission of inquiry into the double attack on Sunday ordered the arrest of 11 officers of various ranks and 50 members of the security forces responsible for the protection of Salhiya," Atta told AFP. Among those arrested, said Atta, are four senior army officers and seven senior policemen, including the chief of police of Salhiya under whose jurisdiction falls the justice ministry, one of the targets of the attacks. Also rounded up, he added, are the commanders of 15 security checkpoints in Salhiya.
The health ministry said on Thursday the toll from the attacks claimed by al Qaeda but blamed by the government on members of the outlawed Baath party stood at 153 people killed and more than 500 wounded. "The final toll is 153 people dead," ministry spokesman Sabah Abdullah said.
"It is difficult to know what proportion were men, women or children," he added, alluding to the terrible disfigurement wrought on the bodies of the dead by Sunday's vehicle bombings at the justice ministry and the Baghdad provincial governor's office. The capital's governor, Salah Abdul Razzaq, on Monday blamed negligence or even collusion by the security forces for the bombings in the heart of the capital, Iraq's deadliest day in more than two years.
"It's a human failure... It can only be negligence or collusion," Razzaq told AFP, noting that footage showed a white Renault truck carrying two tonnes of explosives driving up to the justice ministry building. The logo of the Department of Water in Fallujah, a former insurgent bastion west of Baghdad, was painted on the side of the truck, he said.
"How did it get from Fallujah to here?" Trucks are barred from entering Baghdad, especially Salhiya neighbourhood, during daylight hours. Razzaq called for the sacking of Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani and Baghdad operations commander Lieutenant General Abboud Qanbar.
Defence ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari told AFP earlier this week that security forces raided two houses in Baghdad, where they found bomb-making materials, and made arrests, but did not specify how many. "It looks like the same materials used on Bloody Wednesday," he said, referring to August 19 bombings at government ministries in Baghdad that killed around 100 people. Askari said the evidence found confirmed the bombers were linked to al Qaeda and supporters of the Baath Party of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
The attacks were claimed by the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq, al Qaeda's front-group in the country, in an online statement, US-based monitoring group SITE Intelligence said on Tuesday. Al Qaeda had previously also claimed responsibility for the twin truck bombings in Baghdad in August. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the attacks would not affect Iraqi support for democracy and vowed that parliamentary elections scheduled for January would go ahead.
The attacks were widely condemned by the international community, with US President Barack Obama leading the way by slamming the attackers' "hateful and destructive" agenda. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday he was sending an envoy to Iraq "for preliminary consultations related to Iraq's security and sovereignty."