- Iraqi experts accused 'foreign hands' of being behind
the deadly string of random attacks in the war-torn country in an attempt
to stir unrest ahead of the handover of power to Iraqis.
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- "The current wave of car bombs targeting Iraqi civilians
are surely carried out by foreign hands to blemish the image of resistance
groups and impede the power transfer to the interim government," Rushdi
Al-Ani, professor of history and Islamic civilization in Baghdad University,
told IslamOnline.com on Sunday, June 27.
-
- He said such attacks cannot be justified as they claim
the lives of innocent civilians and add to the state of chaos in the country.
-
- "I'm confident that they [foreign hands] want to
destabilize the country and influence the power transfer," he added.
-
- The vicious cycle of violence will give reason to the
overstay of the US-led occupation in the country after the power handover,
he said.
-
- "Insecurity and instability play well in the hands
of the US occupation to prove that the Iraqis can't take over security
or protect themselves," explained Ani.
-
- Salman Ali Al-Jamili, professor of political sciences
in the same university, agreed.
-
- "The US wants unrest to prevail nationwide to hold
to the security responsibilities after the power transfer as instability
will guarantee the loyalty of the Iraqi government," he told IOL.
-
- Jamili said such indiscriminate attacks could call off
the planned elections, which could result in, if fair, patriotic figures
threatening the US interests.
-
- In a surprising move, the US-led occupation authorities
transferred power to the country's interim government on Monday, June 28,
two days earlier than expected.
-
- An Iraqi official told CNN that interim premier Iyad
Allawi requested the expedition of power transfer because "every day
matters" and they were ready to crack down the worsening security
conditions.
-
- Lay people in Iraq received the power transfer with an
unmistakable message: The US-led occupation troops, who will stay under
the guise of a multinational keeping force, must leave.
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- Resistance Penetrated
-
- Jamili believes that some resistance pockets are penetrated
either by Iraqi intelligence or foreign powers.
-
- He said such powers want to deepen the Iraqi quagmire
and to perplex the US occupation troops to head off any future US attacks
on their homeland.
-
- Jamili also made a veiled reference to Al-Qaeda network,
saying the US was in an open conflict with armed groups in Afghanistan
and Saudi Arabia.
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- Several car bombs and attacks in Iraq have left hundreds
dead this month.
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- Two car bombs killed up to 40 Iraqis and wounded at least
22 others Saturday, June 26, south of Baghdad.
-
- Two days earlier, at least 93 Iraqis were killed and
over 200 others injured in a series of coordinated attacks and clashes
in several Iraqi cities.
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- http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service
/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=2539
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