IRAQ/FILE: Eleven Iraqis to hang over truck bombings

Record ID: 356868

  • Title: IRAQ/FILE: Eleven Iraqis to hang over truck bombings
  • Date: 15th January 2010
  • Summary: FILE BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AUGUST 19, 2009) (REUTERS) SMOKE BILLOWING FROM CARS MORE OF SMOKE BILLOWING FROM CAR ON FIRE AND WATER FROM FIREMEN HOSES CAR ON FIRE AND FIREMEN TRYING TO DOUSE IT VARIOUS OF BURNT-OUT WRECKAGE AT SCENE/ FIREMEN AND PEOPLE NEARBY MAN EXAMINING HIS BURNT-OUT CAR RAVAGED BUILDING OF FOREIGN MINISTRY MORE OF DAMAGED BUILDING OF FOREIGN MINISTRY F
  • Embargoed: 30th January 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVACDA6IBL8HRAR7N15ANE9E1ATG
  • Story Text: A court sentenced 11 Iraqis on Thursday (January 14) to death by hanging for planning and carrying out massive truck bombings in Baghdad last August last year that killed 95 people and wounded more than 1,000.
    The bombs targeted Iraq's foreign and finance ministries, sites that are among the most heavily guarded in Iraq, and damaged public confidence in Iraqi forces ahead of an election in March as U.S. troops prepared to withdraw.
    "Iraqi criminal court imposed a death sentence against 11 criminals who have been convicted of implementing, planning and funding the bomb events that targeted the finance and foreign ministries," said Judge Abdul Satar Bayraqdar, a spokesman for the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council.
    "All the 11 convicted men are Iraqis and they are civilians and not members of the security forces. Their trial was held according to the law and and the trial fell into three sessions," Bayraqdar said, adding that the convicted men have the right to appeal.
    The devastating blasts, which shattered government ministries and other targets at the heart of Iraq's Shi'ite-led government, occurred a month and a half after U.S. combat troops withdrew from urban centres.
    A parliamentary security committee this week reported that Iraqi security forces were complicit in the August blast and two other major bombings in Baghdad and recommended replacing some top officials in the Defence and Interior ministries.
    Overall violence in Iraq has ebbed following bloody sectarian fighting that killed thousands of people after the 2003 U.S. invasion.
    But a series of well coordinated and sophisticated bombings last year damaged confidence in the ability of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Iraqi soldiers and police to contain the stubborn insurgency.
    Western Anbar province, Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland, has also been hit recently by a series of attacks targeting government officials and security forces.
    U.S. and local officials have predicted more such attacks in the weeks leading up to key parliamentary elections on March 7 and before U.S. forces are officially scheduled to end combat operations in August.
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