BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s al-Qaida branch has claimed responsibility for the latest wave of bombings and other attacks that killed dozens in Baghdad and across the country, raising concerns over the government’s ability to provide security after the U.S. troop pullout.
The Islamic State of Iraq said in an Internet message late Thursday that it targeted security forces and government officials in “revenge for the elimination and torture campaigns that Sunni men and women face in the prisons of Baghdad and other cities.”
Iraq’s Shiite- led government has executed at least 68 prisoners so far this year, a rate that has alarmed human rights groups. Additionally, last fall Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, ordered detentions of hundreds of former Saddam Hussein loyalists, most of whom were believed to be Sunni.
Thursday’s attacks killed a total of 55 people and wounded 225.
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