Iraqi police say at least two people were killed and 10 others wounded in a bicycle bombing in Baghdad yesterday, one day after a series of blasts killed more than 100 people and injured hundreds more.
Police and hospital officials say yesterday’s bomb exploded near a downtown restaurant shortly before 8 am.
Iraqi forces were on high alert yesterday as officials raised the death toll in Wednesday’s bombings, which mainly targeted government buildings, to 101, with 563 wounded. The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki vowed late on Wednesday to overhaul the country’s security while Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, whose ministry compound was among the buildings targeted, said there had been “serious security breaches.”
The truck bomb explosions came just minutes apart outside the finance and foreign ministries while a car bombing and spate of mortar attacks added to the carnage in the capital, which has been under Iraqi security control since US troops withdrew from towns and cities at the end of June.
Maliki met with his security and intelligence officials on Wednesday during which a number of “important decisions and fast measures” were agreed upon to sustain security and stability in Baghdad, his office said in a statement.
Baghdad military command announced the arrest of 10 officers from the army and police who were responsible for security in the two districts hit by the attacks. No details were given.
The White House described the attacks as “senseless violence” but the Pentagon said they would not affect the US military’s plans to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.
“This was a calculated, deliberate attack on the restoration of normal life,” Zebari said. “My assessment is it’s an attack on the normaliation of life in Baghdad.”
He acknowledged that there had been “some serious, serious security breaches,” and said that while he couldn’t say who was behind the attack, its timing was “archetypal of al-Qaeda.”
Analysts said that the attacks shattered attempts by Maliki to portray himself as a guardian of security ahead of the elections.
“Maliki is clearly the man who wanted to be the symbol of increasing security and security capabilities, and that is clearly not the case,” International Crisis Group analyst Loulouwa al-Rachid said.
“If this trend [of violence] continues, yes, definitely it’s going to weaken Maliki. Practically, it will endanger the whole process. How can you run elections if security is an issue?” al-Rachid said.
In other developments, the government yesterday officially accepted the resignation of one of its two deputy prime ministers, Barham Saleh, who plans to become premier of the autonomous region of Kurdistan.
Saleh has been seen by Western diplomats as one of the most progressive and professional members of the Iraqi government in which he has been a central part of a recent push to attract foreign investment to the war-torn country.
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