Suicide bombers kill 30 in attack on Iraqi police
Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, head of Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab political party and short-time president of the now-dissolved US-backed Iraqi Governing Council, was taken from his home in western Baghdad at about 6am by military forces, party officials said.
The US military later confirmed it had mistakenly arrested Abdul-Hamid, questioned him and released him shortly after.
The arrest came a day after Iraqi forces launched “Operation Lightning,” an anti-insurgent offensive in Baghdad that Abdul-Hamid’s party opposes, believing security forces will trample on innocent people’s rights.
Meanwhile, the two bombers struck shortly after 9am in Hillah, 60 miles south of the capital, wading into a crowd of about 500 policemen who were demonstrating outside the mayor’s office to protest a government decision to disband their special forces unit, police Capt Muthana Khalid Ali said.
The bombers staggered the detonations to maximise casualties, said Col Adnan Abdul Rahman, who was contacted by telephone in Baghdad. Policeman Jiwad Kadhim Hamid said the explosions took place about 100 yards away from each other and about a minute apart.
“I just saw a ball of fire and flying pieces of flesh. After that, confused policemen started firing into the air,” he said.
The Polish military, which controls the area, said at least 30 Iraqis were killed, while doctors in Hillah said the dead numbered from 20 to 25 people. It is often difficult to get an accurate count immediately after a suicide attack because many of the victims are often dismembered. Officials said about 100 others were wounded.
The blasts blew out windows of the mayor’s office, a court house and school, covering the road with shards of glass and rubble. Iraqi police and soldiers cordoned off the area. Shoes and pieces of clothes worn by the victims were flung across the road.
In an apparent claim of responsibility, al-Qaida in Iraq said in an Internet statement that one of its members carried out an attack “against a group of special Iraqi forces, allied with the Jews and the crusaders, as they were protesting outside a police station.”
The statement’s authenticity could not be verified.
Hillah was the site of the deadliest single attack since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a February 28 suicide car bombing against police recruits that killed 125.
Abdul-Hamid was taken by US troops from his home in the western Baghdad suburb of Khadra along with his three sons and four guards, Islamic Party Secretary-General Ayad al-Samarei said.
Al-Samarei accused American soldiers of raiding Abdul-Hamid’s home and confiscating items, including a computer.
“This is a provocative and foolish act and this is part of the pressure exerted on the party,” al-Samarei said. “At the time when the Americans say they are keen on real Sunni participation, they are arresting the head of the only Sunni party that calls for a peaceful solution and have participated in the political process.”
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is Kurdish, expressed “surprise and discontent” about the arrest, saying the presidential council was not informed that it would occur. “This way of dealing with such a distinguished political figure is unacceptable,” the president said in a statement.
Abdul-Hamid’s Iraqi Islamic Party had in recent weeks taken steps to become more involved in the political process after boycotting the country’s January 30 parliamentary elections, which were dominated by parties drawn from Iraq’s majority Shi’ites.
Abdul-Hamid’s wife, Awatif Ibrahim, told Associated Press Television News that “US troops raided our house and my son’s house, using bullets and stun bombs. And they arrested him (her son) and they also detained my husband, Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party.”
The party released a statement alleging the arrest and demanding Abdul-Hamid’s immediate release, saying he “represents a large sector of the Iraqi people.”
Sunni Arabs, who comprise 15-20% of Iraq’s 26 million people, enjoyed dominance under Saddam Hussein but have lost their influence since the dictator’s ouster two years ago and the country’s predominant Shi’ite community gained political power.
The country’s raging insurgency is believed to be driven mainly from disaffected Iraqi Sunnis and extremist Islamists from neighboring, predominantly Sunni Arab states.
Sectarian tensions have been high in recent weeks during increasing violence. Sunni and Shi’ite religious leaders have been trading accusations against each other’s communities amid the killings of hundreds of people, including Shi’ite and Sunni clerics.
Abdul-Hamid, in his late 60s, is regarded as a moderate Islamic leader. He has been involved with the party since the 1970s and headed it since 2003.
On Sunday, Iraqi police fought pitched battles with insurgents as thousands of security forces backed by American troops began sweeping through Baghdad’s streets in the search for militants responsible for killing more than 740 people since Iraq’s new government was announced in late April.
In their biggest coup of the operation, Iraqi and US soldiers arrested a former general in Saddam Hussein’s intelligence service who was also a member of his Fedayeen secret police during a raid in western Baghdad, the scene of some of Sunday’s heaviest fighting.
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