Maliki to alter security strategy amid violence

AFP/Baghdad

“We are about to make changes in the high and middle positions of those responsible for security, and the security strategy,” Maliki said at a news conference in Baghdad.

“We will discuss this matter in the cabinet session tomorrow (Tuesday) to take decisions,” Maliki said, without providing further details.

“I assure the Iraqi people that they (militants) will not be able to return us to the sectarian conflict” that killed tens of thousands of people in Iraq in past years, he added.

A car bomb exploded in Shaab, a Shia area in north Baghdad, at around the time Maliki spoke, killing 12 people and wounding at least 20, officials said—just one in a wave of bombings yesterday.

Two car bombs went off in the main southern port city of Basra, killing 13 people and wounding 48, while a wave of other bombings hit Baghdad, killing at least 11 people and wounding 102.

In Balad, north of the capital, a car bomb exploded near a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims, killing eight people and wounding at least 15.

Iraq is home to some of the holiest sites in Shia Islam and is visited by hundreds of thousands of foreign pilgrims every year, most of them from neighbouring Iran.

Five Sahwa anti-Al Qaeda fighters were also killed and 19 wounded in three separate attacks north of Baghdad.

The Sahwa are made up of Sunni Arab tribesmen who joined forces with the US military against Al Qaeda from late 2006, helping to turn the tide against the insurgency.

And a car bomb killed one person and wounded four in Rutba, a town in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, while a roadside bomb in the northern city of Mosul wounded three people.

Yesterday’s violence comes after 24 police were killed overnight.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Majid al-Jlaybawi said police and soldiers carried out a joint raid to free kidnapped police officers in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, but clashes ensued.

Twelve kidnapped policemen were killed and four wounded, although it was not immediately clear if they were caught in crossfire, killed by their abductors, or a combination of the two.

Mohamed Hadi, one of the wounded policemen, said they had been abducted on the highway between Baghdad and Jordan on Saturday.

In Haditha, a town in Anbar province, gunmen attacked a police station, killing eight police, among them two officers, First Lieutenant Murad al-Hadithi and a doctor said.

And gunmen killed four police and wounded three in an attack on another police station in the town of Rawa, also in Anbar, said Qais al-Rawi, head of the area’s local council.

Gunmen also killed a shop owner in Mosul on Sunday.

The security situation in Anbar, home to two of the main centres of Sunni anti-government protests that broke out almost five months ago, has deteriorated sharply.

On Saturday, security forces tried to arrest Mohamed Khamis Abu Risha, who is wanted in connection with the killing of five Iraqi soldiers near Ramadi, west of the capital.

But the bid to arrest Abu Risha, nephew of a powerful tribal sheikh who is a key supporter of the protesters in Anbar, sparked clashes with tribesmen in which two of them were killed.

Hundreds of gunmen then gathered in the area of the Anbar Operations Command headquarters near Ramadi, but later withdrew, police said.

Officials also reported kidnappings of people including security forces in Anbar on Saturday, though they gave differing figures for how many were seized.

Tensions are festering between the government of Maliki, a Shia, and Sunnis who accuse authorities of marginalising and targeting their community, including through wrongful detentions and accusations of involvement in terrorism.

While the government has made some concessions aimed at placating the protesters and Iraqi Sunnis in general, such as freeing prisoners and raising the salaries of Sunni anti-Al Qaeda fighters, underlying issues have yet to be addressed.