Ahmad Alvani, the head of the Iraqi parliament’s economy commission, said the bombings were intended to deflect attention from separate massacres of anti-government protesters in the cities of al-Hawijah and Baqoubah.
He told Al-Sumaria TV on Monday: “These crimes are being carried out as part of a thoroughly meddlesome policy.
“The Dawa Party and its leader al-Maliki have reached the point where they are even killing Shiites in these explosions and intensifying sectarianism by using the Iranian regime’s intelligence services to cover it up.”
But the Iraqi Shiites were shrewd enough not be fooled by al-Maliki’s ploys, and only his removal could now solve the political and security crisis.
A wave of car bombings and shootings hit cities in Iraq late Sunday and on Monday, killing at least 76 people and wounding more than 250, medical and security officials said. Some news agency reports put the overall death toll at 86 or more.