Bolani

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s interior minister called for the death penalty yesterday for a group of 39 detained Al Qaeda-linked suspects, even before they have been put on trial for allegedly plotting to bomb targets in Baghdad. Showing off the handcuffed suspects at a news conference, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told reporters that he is confident the men will be found guilty, citing their alleged confessions, documents, and video found at their homes that he said showed their earlier attacks and plans to carry out new ones.

BAGHDAD — Iraqi authorities have obtained confessions from captured insurgents who say Al Qaeda is planning suicide attacks in the United States and Europe during the Christmas season, two senior officials said yesterday. A senior US intelligence official confirmed the threat as credible. Jawad al-Bolani, Iraqi interior minister, said the botched bombing in central Stockholm last weekend was among the alleged plots the insurgents revealed. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari called the claims “a critical threat.’’ Both Bolani and Zebari said Iraq has informed Interpol of...

BAGHDAD — Iraqi authorities have obtained confessions from captured insurgents who say Al Qaeda is planning suicide attacks in the United States and Europe during the Christmas season, two senior officials said yesterday. A senior US intelligence official confirmed the threat as credible. Jawad al-Bolani, Iraqi interior minister, said the botched bombing in central Stockholm last weekend was among the alleged plots the insurgents revealed. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari called the claims “a critical threat.’’ Both Bolani and Zebari said Iraq has informed Interpol of...

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s interior minister called for the death penalty yesterday for a group of 39 detained Al Qaeda-linked suspects, even before they have been put on trial for allegedly plotting to bomb targets in Baghdad. Showing off the handcuffed suspects at a news conference, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told reporters that he is confident the men will be found guilty, citing their alleged confessions, documents, and video found at their homes that he said showed their earlier attacks and plans to carry out new ones.

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s top security chiefs said yesterday that the US military had warned them about an imminent attack but the tip came too late to act on before last week’s deadly bombings against government sites in Baghdad. An Interior Ministry official said 13 Al Qaeda-linked suspects have been detained in connection with the bombings, the third of their kind since August. At least 127 people were killed and more than 500 wounded in the bombings. The disclosure of the US tip and the announcement on the arrests came on the third day of a grilling by Iraq’s parliament of government...

BAGHDAD -- Some 12,000 Iraqi policemen have been killed since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the country's interior minister said yesterday, as clashes, a suicide bomber, and weekend explosions killed more than a dozen Iraqi officers and six US soldiers. At a news conference in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said that despite the thousands of police deaths, "when we call for new recruits, they come by the hundreds and by the thousands. " Among the deaths yesterday were seven police officers killed when a suicide bomber hit...

BAGHDAD - Parliament rejected for the second time yesterday a draft law allowing foreign troops from countries other than the United States to remain after the end of the year, lawmakers said. The law drafted by the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would allow all foreign troops other than Americans to stay in Iraq until the end of July 2009. It was rejected earlier in the week, and faces another vote after Christmas. Those opposed to the draft law were primarily lawmakers loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's interior minister narrowly escaped a roadside bomb blast yesterday in a mainly Sunni part of the capital that US officials had said had been virtually cleared of death squad cells. Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, a Shi'ite, was traveling in an armored car in a convoy of about 10 vehicles when the bomb exploded in the Dora neighborhood. The blast killed two bystanders, including a 12-year-old child, and wounded five traffic policemen, said Dora police officer Mohammad al Baghdadi.

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s interior minister said yesterday that more than 40 police officers face charges after an investigation into prison abuse found inmates incarcerated without warrants and others with their rights violated. Jawad al-Bolani’s announcement came as the government tried to contain a scandal over charges of widespread torture in Iraqi prisons. Bolani spoke during a tour of one of the most notorious prisons in eastern Baghdad, where prisoners were packed by the dozens into small cells.

BAGHDAD - Iraq has ordered hundreds of private security guards linked to Blackwater Worldwide to leave the country within seven days or face possible arrest on visa violations, the interior minister said yesterday. The order was made following a US judge’s dismissal of criminal charges against five Blackwater guards who were accused in the 2007 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad. It applies to about 250 security contractors who worked for Blackwater in Iraq at the time of the shooting, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said.

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s top security chiefs said yesterday that the US military had warned them about an imminent attack but the tip came too late to act on before last week’s deadly bombings against government sites in Baghdad. An Interior Ministry official said 13 Al Qaeda-linked suspects have been detained in connection with the bombings, the third of their kind since August. At least 127 people were killed and more than 500 wounded in the bombings. The disclosure of the US tip and the announcement on the arrests came on the third day of a grilling by Iraq’s parliament of government...

BAGHDAD - Parliament rejected for the second time yesterday a draft law allowing foreign troops from countries other than the United States to remain after the end of the year, lawmakers said. The law drafted by the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would allow all foreign troops other than Americans to stay in Iraq until the end of July 2009. It was rejected earlier in the week, and faces another vote after Christmas. Those opposed to the draft law were primarily lawmakers loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

BAGHDAD -- Some 12,000 Iraqi policemen have been killed since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the country's interior minister said yesterday, as clashes, a suicide bomber, and weekend explosions killed more than a dozen Iraqi officers and six US soldiers. At a news conference in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said that despite the thousands of police deaths, "when we call for new recruits, they come by the hundreds and by the thousands. " Among the deaths yesterday were seven police officers killed when a...

BAGHDAD - A key Al Qaeda in Iraq figure involved in smuggling hundreds of suicide bombers across the border from Syria has been killed in a raid in northern Iraq, the US military said yesterday. The military called the death a blow to the insurgent organization in Iraq, but acknowledged it remains very much capable of carrying out well-planned, coordinated assaults with large body counts. A series of attacks against three hotels and a police crime lab in Baghdad this week killed dozens.

BAGHDAD - Senior Iraqi officials and lawmakers recommended a review of security leadership, better coordination on intelligence, and firmer treatment of detainees yesterday as anger mounted over truck bombings against key government institutions that killed nearly 100 people. Lawmakers also called for an emergency session of Parliament next week to address the security concerns, the deputy Parliament speaker said. Facing widespread criticism, the Iraqi military said on state television that it had arrested members of the insurgent cell responsible for...