Security officials held in Iraq blasts

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq detained dozens of security officials responsible for protecting the Baghdad district where twin suicide bombings this week killed 155 people, and authorities said Thursday they are trying to determine whether they were negligent or even had a role in the attack.

The blasts in the heart of the capital infuriated Iraqis, who question how the bombers could have driven their deadly cargo undetected through the multiple checkpoints that dot Baghdad. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government, facing a January election, has been under intense pressure to restore a sense of security and show that the military and police are able to take over when Americans go home.

A military spokesman for the Iraqi capital, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, told The Associated Press that 11 army officers and 50 security officials have been taken into custody over Sunday’s bombings, which targeted the Justice Ministry and the Baghdad Provincial Administration.

The suspects were detained because they were responsible for protecting the area where the bombings occurred, al-Moussawi said. He said the investigation will determine whether they were simply negligent or actually helped the insurgents.

“If the investigation results show that other security officials were also negligent or helped the insurgents, we will arrest them,” he said.

Other suspects have been detained, but al-Moussawi said specifically that these were the first arrests of security officials in relation to the Sunday blasts. The military commander and the police chief of Baghdad’s Salhiya district, where the bombs went off, were among those arrested, al-Moussawi said. He refused to give information about the other suspects.

Iraqi officials have already said that the two vehicles likely passed through a number of checkpoints before detonating. Traffic in the capital has been snarled for days after the blasts as authorities tightened checkpoints and flooded the city with security reinforcements.

But many Iraqis, jaded by years of attacks, questioned whether the government was really going after the guilty or simply trying to show it is taking some sort of action.