IRAQ: Government moves to curb suicide bombings

Wednesday, 02. 20. 2008  –  Category: Analysis Briefings Commentary, Features, News

Editorial:

Al Qaeda, al-Qaeda, al-qaida, Al Qayda, and so on ad infinitum. The usual garbage trotted out by the usual suspects with the same tired old pack of lies, that everything in Irak is either the work of the omnipresent, damn near omnipotent Alfredo “Just call me ‘Al’ ” Keida. (He’s one of the Keidas, surely you know of them? They’re a fine old samurai family from Osaka who moved to Irak in 1947 and went native … such a pity that ‘Al’ turned out so badly.)

Or if it’s not Al then it’s the work of the Jaish Al Mahdi’s highly trained rogue elements elephants.

We are supposed to believe that within less than an hour of those two horrific bombings that the interior ministry “police” who are very good at extracting, teeth, fingernails,  and toenails, all without the aid of anaesthetics, but not so good at actually being … you know … policemen. Managed to identify the bombers one of whom had her head blown off.

Is it not amazing that there was a photographer present to take a photograph of that? Is it not even more amazing that the photographer was not immediately beaten up and his equipment smashed by the interior ministry police at the scene — that is what they do now to photographers who try to photograph bomb scenes, ever since they passed a “law” banning such photographs as part of “operation impose law.”  

I would like to see some evidence to support these allegations by people who like their American masters have committed one atrocity after another and just like their American masters been caught lying about it repeatedly. In the absence of such evidence I am going to make the entirely reasonable assumption based on past performance that this is yet another pack of lies and a pack of lies moreover so stupid that it is not even meant to deceive.

God, have pity on whichever harmless mentally shattered innocents are picked up in this latest “sweep.” Because nobody other than God will.

Omar Khdhayyir

Update: 

BAGHDAD — Psychiatric case files of two female suicide bombers who killed nearly 100 people in Baghdad this month show that they suffered from depression and schizophrenia but do not contain information indicating they had Down syndrome, American officials said Wednesday

Read in full: Files for Suicide Bombers Show No Down Syndrome - New York Times

BAGHDAD, 20 February 2008 (IRIN) - The Iraqi police are to start rounding up beggars, mentally disabled persons and others living on the streets to prevent them from being used by militant groups in suicide attacks, the Interior Ministry said on 19 February.

“Terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq have started exploiting these people to launch suicide attacks as they do not raise suspicions,” ministry spokesman Maj-Gen Abdul-Karim Khalaf said in a statement.

“These terrorist groups are luring those in desperate need of money to help them in their attacks, or exploiting their bad mental condition to use them as suicide bombers,” Khalaf said.

According to Khalaf, the Interior Ministry intends to physically round up these most vulnerable persons and hand them over to the Ministry of Work and Social Affairs, which will be responsible for caring for and rehabilitating them.

The move comes as militants are said to have increased their reliance on desperate women and disabled persons for the carrying out of suicide attacks.

On 1 February two suicide bombers struck in two separate attacks on pet markets in Baghdad, killing at least 99 civilians and wounding up to 200.

Iraqi officials said the suicide bombers were two mentally disabled women with Downs Syndrome. They had 15 kg of explosives strapped to them which was detonated by remote control.

Rehabilitation programmes

Teams from the Ministry of Work and Social Affairs are gearing up to receive these people nationwide and to include them in their rehabilitation programmes.

“The ministry’s rehabilitation directorate is preparing shelters in Baghdad and other provinces in cooperation with the Interior Ministry to end this bad and uncivilised phenomenon,” said Abdullah al-Lami, spokesman of the Ministry of Work and Social Affairs.

“We’ve prepared comprehensive educational and social programmes to be delivered in these shelters in order to turn them [recipients] into active and productive people who can mix properly in society,” al-Lami told IRIN.

These programmes would include religious courses, in cooperation with both Sunni and Shia establishments, he said, adding that no specific time frame had been set for completion of the programmes.

“The militants are changing their tactics and the government must do this, too. It will definitely have a positive impact on the security situation,” said Anbar university security analyst Hussein Sabah al-Dulaimi, referring to the new government move. It would help deny resources to militants, he said.

sm/ar/cb

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]

IRIN Middle East | Middle East | Iraq | IRAQ: Government moves to curb suicide bombings | Conflict | News Item

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