Iraq warns of rise in attacks ahead of elections

Nov 12, 2009, 9:20 GMT

Baghdad - Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari warned Iraqis on Thursday to expect more terrorist violence ahead of parliamentary elections set for January.

'All eyes are now turning to the date of the next elections, and I think terrorists are planning more violence,' Zebari told reporters in Baghdad.

Iraqis are scheduled to go to the polls on January 21, after lawmakers on Sunday arrived at a compromise solution for voting in the region around the disputed northern city of Kirkuk.

'The terrorists hope that these criminal acts will prove that they can undermine security and confidence in the government and the state' ahead of the elections, Zebari said.

'Investigations have proved that the Baath Party, working with al- Qaeda, carried out the two blasts that targeted a number of Iraqi ministries' in central Baghdad on August 19 and October 25, the foreign minister said.

Those attacks together left 255 people dead, hundreds more wounded, and badly damaged the ministries of foreign affairs, justice and finance.

Following the two attacks, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accused Syria of not doing enough to stop Iraqi Baathists now in Syria from financing and planning attacks in Iraq. The accusations sparked a diplomatic row that saw each country withdraw its ambassador to the other.

On Wednesday, al-Maliki's former national security advisor, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, said that Iraqi investigations had shown that mid-level Syrian security officers also had helped plan the attacks, and accused Saudi Arabia of not doing enough to counter terrorist attacks in Iraq.

He said that Iraq had submitted thousands of pages of documents in support of those claims to UN envoy Oscar Fernandez-Taranco in formally requesting a UN investigation into the bombings.

Zebari on Thursday sought to soften that message.

'We asked ... Fernandez-Taranco to investigate these crimes, and gave him secret intelligence and sensitive information we have not yet disclosed,' Zebari said.

'We do not want to politicize the issue,' he stressed. 'We seek the truth, do not blame any state for the blasts. All indicators point to the involvement of Iraqi supporters of the Baath Party and al-Qaeda.'

Earlier this week, Iraqi security officials announced they had arrested 74 people, including more than 60 of their own ranks, in connection with the August and October attacks.

The Islamic State in Iraq, an umbrella organisation of Sunni insurgent groups including al-Qaeda in Iraq, took responsibility for the bombings in messages posted to Islamist websites.