BAGHDAD, Saturday (AFP) - Iraq arrested a “terrorist group” loyal to toppled dictator Saddam Hussein in the wake of twin truck bombings that killed 95 people in Baghdad two days ago, a senior security officer said on Friday.
“This terrorist group committed the attacks,” said Major General Qassim Atta, spokesman for the Iraqi Army's Baghdad operations.
Wednesday's bombings at the finance and foreign ministries, which also left 600 people wounded, culminated in the country's worst day of violence in 18 months. Atta also said a truck carrying five tonnes of high explosives had been seized on Friday near Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad.
Powerful Shiite politicians and Iraq's leading Sunni insurgent group on Friday accused each other of being responsible for massive truck bombings in Baghdad that killed 95 people.
Statements from the two sides of Iraq's sectarian divide exposed the gulf opened up by the attacks at the finance and foreign ministries, which also left some 600 people wounded, two days ago.
Violence across the country on Friday saw six more deaths, according to police officials.
Two people were killed and 20 wounded when a stick bomb attached to a car exploded at a market in the Dora neighbourhood of south Baghdad.
Separately, two army officers and two soldiers perished when a stationary car exploded on a road 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of the restive northern city of Mosul. A fifth soldier was wounded.
Near the northern oil city of Kirkuk, meanwhile, a Sunni Arab former MP and his wife and son were wounded when their car was attacked by unknown gunmen.
Police also said the body of a member of the Kurdish peshmerga security force was found riddled with bullets at Khazar, 35 kilometres (22 miles) northeast of the main northern city of Mosul. |
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