Suspect in Iraq bombings kills investigator

By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, November 1, 2009

BAGHDAD -- A man being questioned in connection with last Sunday's devastating bombings targeting Iraqi ministries grabbed a gun from a guard and fatally shot a senior investigator, Iraqi officials said Sunday.

The investigator, Maj. Arkan Hachim, returned fire after he was wounded. The suspect was also fatally shot, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Interior.

Ministry officials acknowledged that the incident showed "a dereliction," and they vowed to "investigate the matters behind this incident."

The statement did not identify the suspect. Nor did it explain how investigators had linked him to the bombings or note when the shooting occurred.

The bombings targeting the Justice Ministry and the Baghdad Provincial Council buildings in central Baghdad killed nearly 160 people and wounded hundreds. It followed the Aug. 19 bombing of the Foreign and Finance ministries, which were similarly devastated.

The statement said the suspect took the handgun of a guard as he was being taken to get a drink of water. He wounded the guard before barging into Hachim's office and shooting him, officials said.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has blamed Sunni insurgents with ties to Saddam Hussein's regime and to al-Qaeda in Iraq for the spate of attacks. Maliki has asked the United Nations to investigate the bombings.

By crippling key government agencies, the bombings appear to represent a shift in tactics by a weakened insurgency, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. Rather than targeting civilians at places such as markets and mosques in hopes of inflaming sectarian tension, the organizers of the latest attacks appear to be motivated by a desire to weaken the government and discredit Iraq's security forces, as the U.S. military pulls out and Iraqi politicians gear up for an election scheduled for January.

Special correspondent Qais Mizher contributed to this report.


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