Maliki Points Finger at Syrian Government for Baghdad Bombings

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki today formally asked the United Nations Security Council to launch an inquiry into last month’s Baghdad bombings, and in particular into “outside forces” who supported the attacks, an obvious reference to its publicly broadcast confessions implicating Syria in the attack.

Maliki said the attacks, which killed roughly 100 people and did serious damage to two government ministries, amounted to “genocide” and should be punishable under international law. He said Syria had been supporting militants under the pretext of resisting the US occupation, but “after the withdrawal of US forces the situation has become unacceptable.” Over 130,000 US troops are still in Iraq.

Iraq and Syria have withdrawn their respective ambassadors amid the rising tensions, and Syrian President Bashar Assad has demanded that Iraq present some sort of proof to back up their “immoral” accusations. The most recent confession claimed Syrian intelligence was training al-Qaeda operatives to attack Iraq.

Other than the confessions all Maliki has released publicly were press releases from the Iraqi Ba’athist Party calling for the political process to be disrupted. Maliki claimed the releases were issued from inside Syria, where many Sunni refugees fled during the US invasion.