Al-Maliki fires head of Baghdad security after spate of bombings

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has fired the head of Baghdad's security forces a day after a string of bombings in the capital killed 127 people.

AFP - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki fired the head of Baghdad's security forces on Wednesday after bombings in the capital which killed 127 people, a statement from his office said.
   
"Nuri al-Maliki, as the commander in chief of the armed forces, ordered the removal of Lieutenant General Abboud Qanbar from his post," the statement said.
   
Qanbar will be replaced by Lieutenant General Ahmed Hashem Awoudeh.
   
A total of 127 people were killed and 448 wounded in Tuesday's bombings, the third such major attacks to hit the Iraqi capital since August, according to an interior ministry official.
   
The attacks all struck Baghdad within minutes of each other.
   
One suicide attacker detonated his payload at a finance ministry office, another struck at a tunnel leading to the labour ministry and a third drove a four-wheel-drive car into a courthouse.
   
A fourth suicide bomber in a car struck a police patrol in Dora in south Baghdad, while a car bomb hit interior ministry offices in the city centre.

Date created : 2009-12-09