INTERVIEW-Assassination wave targets Iraq security officials

04 Jan 2011

Source: reuters // Reuters


* Silenced weapons draw less attention

* Arab summit a big security challenge


By Suadad al-Salhy

BAGHDAD, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Both Shi'ite and Sunni groups are behind a wave of assassinations targeting police and army officers in Baghdad in the past few days, a senior official said on Tuesday.

More than 37 successful and attempted assassinations were registered by the Baghdad operations centre in the last two months, most targeting police officers and carried out through the use of silenced handguns or small bombs attached to cars.

The past few days have seen a new spate of killings. Three police and one army officer were killed in separate shootings on Sunday, and on Monday there was at least one other successful assassination and one attempt, the Interior Ministry says.

"Indeed, the last two days witnessed a wave, let us call it a wave, of assassination attempts targeting several Interior Ministry officers, in particular, as well as Ministry of Defence officers," said Major General Hassan al-Baidhani, chief of staff for the Baghdad operations command.

While Iraqi and U.S. forces have made strides against a stubborn insurgency, militants have lately stepped up attacks on Iraqi troops and police. U.S. troops are due to leave this year, eight years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, and now limit their role to advising and assisting Iraqi forces.

Violence has fallen sharply since the height of sectarian carnage in 2006/07 but remains a constant of Iraqi daily life.


SUMMIT PLANS

Baidhani said both al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), and the Shi'ite militant group Asaib al-Haq, were responsible for recent attacks. Asaib al-Haq is an offshoot of anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's movement, which Sadr has repudiated since agreeing to join the government.

The groups were targeting people who used cars they believed belonged to the ministries responsible for the army and police, Baidhani said. The attackers use one or two cars to follow their victims and watch their movements for days before shooting them with silenced handguns, which draw less attention.

Iraq's next big security challenge is to prove Baghdad is safe enough to host an Arab League summit, expected to be held in the Iraqi capital in March. Mortars and rockets, which are still fired occasionally, are the main threat, Baidhani said.

"These weapons ... are intended to thwart the preparations for the summit," he said.

Baidhani repeated Iraqi and U.S. assertions that ISI was now having trouble recruiting suicide bombers for its big signature attacks: "In the last six months, they brought 17 terrorists from outside Iraq, mostly from Arab nationalities," he said.

Five died in operations in Mosul, three were used against a Baghdad military base and five carried out an Oct. 31 assault on a Baghdad church in which 52 people died. (Writing by Suadad al-Salhy, Editing by Michael Christie and Peter Graff)