Iraqi PM says main battle against terror ends despite remnants

Source:Xinhua Published: 2012-8-7 10:53:04

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Monday during a ceremony that his country's main battle with terrorism has ended despite that some cells of terrorists are still active.

"The battle with terrorism has ended and the remaining are cells here and there looking for an opportunity or a gap," Maliki said during a ceremony to reward some officers and troops who thwarted attacks by insurgents on Iraqi prisons recently.

Maliki, who is also Commander in Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, accused some countries, which he didn't named, of being behind the insurgent groups in Iraq and benefiting from the unrest in the Middle East, but he assured his troops that the insurgents will not prevail any more.

Maliki's move came as an attempt to apply the principle of reward and punishment, after two days of his order to sack some senior security officers due to their negligence in duties during a deadly coordinated attack against a police headquarters in Baghdad last week.

Recently, insurgent groups attacked two police headquarters and Baghdad Central Prison to free some dangerous prisoners, but their attacks' results ranged from limited success to being foiled by Iraqi security forces.

On Tuesday, insurgents managed to break into the directorate of major crimes in Baghdad after they carried out two almost simultaneous car bombings and were besieged by Iraqi security forces which fought them for five hours until clearing the building.

At least 12 people were killed and 27 others wounded in the two car bombings, while the anti-terrorism department later in the day announced the killing of eight militants inside the building.

A day after, the Iraqi security forces thwarted another attempt to free prisoners when insurgents blew up bombs outside a police headquarters in Taji area, just north of Baghdad.

On Sunday, the Iraqi security forces thwarted another prison break attempt in Baghdad Central Prison, previously named Abu Ghraib prison, after they discovered an unfinished tunnel dug by the inmates.

On July 22, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the top leader of the self- styled Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), al-Qaida front in the country, announced a plan named "Breaking the walls" aimed at releasing Qaida prisoners and targeting the country's judges and investigators, as well as to return to the previous al-Qaida strongholds that they had evacuated.

Posted in: Mid-East

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