Iraq chief ramps up anti-terror measures
BAGHDAD — As the death toll from the weekend truck bombing in Baghdad climbed to 157, Iraq’s embattled prime minister ordered new security measures, including abandoning the use of bomb-detection wands that U.S. experts pronounced worthless years ago.
But security forces were still using the devices yesterday evening, as a string of smaller bombings in the capital killed 16 people and wounded dozens more.
Sunday’s suicide attack by the Islamic State group was the single deadliest bombing to hit Baghdad in more than a decade of war and insurgency.
Also yesterday, five convicted terrorists were executed in Baghdad, the Ministry of Justice said in an announcement that appeared aimed at restoring faith in Iraq’s security forces in the wake of the devastating attack.
Firefighters and medical teams were still uncovering bodies from the city’s Karada neighborhood yesterday morning. Officials said a dozen people were missing and at least 60 of the dead were women and children. At least 190 people were wounded.
The blast struck after midnight when the neighborhood was bustling with people breaking their daylight fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The attack demonstrated the Islamic State’s ability to strike the capital despite a string of defeats on the battlefield, including the loss of Fallujah just over a week ago.
With public anger mounting, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered new security measures Sunday evening, including increased aerial scanning and intelligence-gathering in the capital and the installation of X-ray systems at the entrances of provinces.
Later yesterday, about 10 rockets struck a refugee camp for Iranian exiles next to Baghdad’s international airport, according to a Baghdad police official. The attack killed three Iraqi policemen and wounded 13 others, according to a hospital official. Shahin Gobadi, a Paris-based spokesman for the Iranian exile group, said more than 40 residents were wounded in the rocket attack.