Much as with the August Baghdad bombing, Iraq’s government is now televising the public confessions of various people it says are responsible for the October 25 bombings, and once again the government is quick to emphasize the Syria connection.

At the same time, Iraqi spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh insists “the group came from Syria but we are not accusing Syria again.” The fullout from accusations surrounding the August bombings has done damage to Iraqi-Syrian relations that still hasn’t healed.

In August, Iraq broadcast a Ba’athist confession and then demanded that Syria, itself a Ba’athist nation, hand over high ranking Iraqi Ba’athist officials. They later broadcast a second confession from al-Qaeda insisted they, not the Ba’athists were responsible. This second confession came with the claim that Syria’s government was operating an al-Qaeda training center.

The nations withdrew their respective ambassadors following the row, and Iraq massed its troops along the border. Syria has denied having any role in the attacks, and says it has been cooperating closely with US and Iraqi officials on cross-border attacks.

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