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Baghdad security chief 'is fired' | Baghdad security chief 'is fired' |
(40 minutes later) | |
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has fired the head of Baghdad's security forces in the wake of Tuesday's bombings which killed 127 people. | Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has fired the head of Baghdad's security forces in the wake of Tuesday's bombings which killed 127 people. |
"[Mr Maliki] ordered the removal of Lt Gen Abboud Qanbar from his post," a statement from his office said. | "[Mr Maliki] ordered the removal of Lt Gen Abboud Qanbar from his post," a statement from his office said. |
Lt Gen Qanbar would be replaced by the deputy chief of the Iraqi army, Lt Gen Ahmed Hashem, the statement said. | |
A total of 127 people were killed and 448 wounded in Tuesday's bombings, the third such major attack since August. | |
"This crime will prompt us to review security strategies. It will bring changes in positions of officials in order to develop tactics to confront these developing challenges," Mr Maliki said. | |
Public anger | |
BAGHDAD BOMBING Scores killed in Baghdad bombings Violence returns to Iraq | |
Iraqi MPs have demanded that top ministers face questions in parliament over security. | |
Iraq's Interior Minister, Jawad al-Bolani, said he was willing attend the session as long it was held publicly. | |
Reports said the defence minister and Prime Minister Maliki had also been asked to attend. | |
The bombings came two days after Iraq's parliament backed a new election law and set delayed polls for 7 March. | |
The top US military officer said plans to withdraw US forces next year had not been altered, despite the attacks. | |
Toll questioned | |
Also on Wednesday, the Iraqi government questioned the media's death toll for the bombing, which quoted unnamed police and hospital officials who said the number of dead totalled 127. | |
The government-run Baghdad Operation Centre said 77 people had been killed. | |
Relatives of the dead from Tuesday's attacks waited outside Baghdad hospitals to pick up their remains. | |
Some mourners carried black-draped coffins through the streets to the burial grounds. | |
Officials say that attacks on state-run institutions are designed to undermine the Iraqi government, especially ahead of the parliamentary election. | |
Also on Wednesday, another bomb, planted by the side of a road in north Baghdad, killed two people and injured seven. Later, a sniper shot a policeman dead in the same district. | |
Iraqi government figures have shown that violence generally has fallen over the past 18 months. | |
In October, however, co-ordinated bomb attacks killed at least 155 people and wounded hundreds in Baghdad. |
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