Iraqis Arrest Suspects in March 9 Al-Sadeer Hotel Bombing

By Andrew Cochran

The government of Iraq has released a press release announcing the arrest of suspects in a March 9 suicide truck bombing attack in Baghdad.  Though Al-Qaida has claimed that the attack was aimed at the Al-Sadeer Hotel (host to numerous foreign contractors), the Iraqis continue to insist that the explosives-laden garbage truck was actually targeting the adjacent Ministry of Agriculture building.  See Iraqi government press release below:

"Iraqi security forces arrest the terrorists responsible for the explosion that targeted the Ministry of Agriculture earlier this month."

"Following a raid on a Baghdad house on 18 March 2005, Iraqi security forces arrested ten people. The ten detainees have already admitted that they planned and executed the attack which targeted the Ministry of Agriculture building on 9 March 2005."

"In the incident on 9 March, a waste-truck, laden with the explosives, exploded resulting in the death of three people and wounding about twenty others. During their interrogation, the ten detainees also confessed to the murder of a number of Iraqi security force staff and the execution of a suicide attack earlier that targeted a security detachment in Al-Nwsor Square in Baghdad."

"During the raid the security forces discovered that the house was being used as an operational headquarters and as a weapons storage facility. In addition to two cars that the terrorists were planning to use as car bombs, security forces also found US$8480 in cash, approximately four hundred thousand Iraqi Dirhams, five passports without names, forged Iraqi Identity Cards, cellular telephones and cameras."

"The detainees are now undergoing further intensive interrogation.  The aim is to acquire information about other terrorist networks and the financing sources for these networks which target the security and safety of the Iraqi citizen hindering the march towards a enhanced future for all Iraqis."

"No security personnel were injured during the raid."

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