Iraq to increase security after series of bombings

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — The Iraqi government decided to increase security at checkpoints near government buildings and markets and keep concrete blast barriers around potential targets after a wave of deadly bombings struck Baghdad, government officials said Thursday.

The officials said the move was agreed to in a meeting late Wednesday between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and security chiefs. It reverses a decision by the Iraqi military to remove all blast walls from the city by mid-September.

Bombs struck a restaurant in Baghdad and a bus and a market south of the capital Thursday, killing at least seven people while fear and anger spread after the deadly bombing spree the day before that killed at least 101.

The bloodshed has dealt a devastating blow to public confidence in the Iraqi government and prompted al-Maliki to admit security failures for the first time — a sharp reversal of his campaign to project a sense of normalcy ahead of January’s parliamentary elections.

He said the attacks were designed to foil plans to reopen streets and remove concrete walls from Baghdad’s main roads by mid-September, an effort aimed at unblocking traffic congestion caused by the ubiquitous barriers.

Funeral processions began early Thursday for the victims of the bombings, with families carrying coffins draped in black through the streets. Dozens of people waited in lines outside the city’s central morgue with empty coffins, as coroners worked to identify the bodies.

The uptick in violence has raised fears about the readiness of Iraqi forces to provide security less than two months after the June 30 withdrawal of U.S. troops from cities. The government’s acknowledgment of the problems reflected intensifying concern.

Al-Maliki convened an emergency meeting late Wednesday with senior security and military officials to discuss “rapid measures to achieve security and stability” in Baghdad and surrounding areas, to prevent insurgents from rekindling violence ahead of next year’s elections, his office said in a statement.

It did not elaborate, but two government officials said the decision was made to keep the blast walls around markets and other vital areas in Baghdad and to set up mobile checkpoints to enhance searching and observation abilities. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.

Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, the chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, also said 11 police and army commanders overseeing security, traffic and intelligence services in the targeted areas have been detained on suspicion of negligence.

But the pronouncements did little to reassure ordinary Iraqis who were stunned by the scope of Wednesday’s bombings.

Hussein Alawy, a 32-year-owner of a convenience store near the bombed Foreign Ministry, said he stayed home Thursday for fear of more bombings and called on the government to change its mind on the blast walls.

Truck bombs tore through the foreign and finance ministries in the heart of Baghdad, the deadliest in a wave of explosions that killed at least 101 people and wounded more than 500, according to police and hospital officials.

Al-Maliki blamed an alliance of al-Qaida in Iraq and Saddam Hussein loyalists who belonged to the ousted Baath Party. The U.S. military agreed the blasts bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq.