Iraqi PM links explosions to execution of regime officials

Al-Maliki: Deadly bombing at Baghdad university is connected to execution of 2 senior members of Saddam Hussein's regime.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
al-maliki in street 298 (photo credit: AP [file])
al-maliki in street 298
(photo credit: AP [file])
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki linked Tuesday's deadly bombing at a leading Baghdad university with the execution of two senior members of Saddam Hussein's regime. The Shiite leader also said his government would do its best to protect educational institutes. In a statement issued hours after a deadly explosion killed and wounded dozens of students at Al-Mustansiriya University in north-central Baghdad, al-Maliki promised to punish those responsible. He blamed "terrorists and Saddamists" for the blasts and said the deadly explosions were the work of those seeking revenge for Monday's hanging of Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court Awad Hamed al-Bandar. "At the time when the tails of the dead regime received a blow that buried all their fake dreams forever, when the Iraqi people turned a black page of injustice and dictatorship by giving fair punishment for criminals and mass killers, a desperate group of terrorists and Saddamists targeted an educational center," al-Maliki said in a statement released by his office. "They carried an ugly crime against humanity targeting the innocent students of Al-Mustansiriya University," he said. "As we condemn the ugly crime, we affirm that its perpetrators will not escape punishment of the hand of justice that will chase them and catch them no matter how long it takes," he said.