Al Qaeda in Iraq took credit for the series of attacks yesterday in Baghdad, Anbar, Babil, and Ninewa provinces that killed more than 60 people. The attacks included suicide bombers, car bombs, IEDs, and armed assaults.
The Iraqi terror group claimed the attacks in a statement that was released yesterday and was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group. The statement was addressed to Iraq’s “Justice Minister of the Safavid [Iranian] government.” AQI claimed that attack was “in response to the execution of the Sunni detainees.”
“[W]hat reached you on Tuesday is only the first rain, and the first phase, which, Allah permitting, will be followed by revenge for those whom you executed of the monotheists [al Qaeda members],” the AQI statement said.
Al Qaeda in Iraq attacked the Justice Ministry in a suicide assault on March 14, killing 22 people. The terror group claimed credit for the attack in the statement that was released over the weekend.
AQI continues to use the issue of female Sunni prisoners held by government forces (“prisons of the apostates”), as well as al Qaeda’s “Destroying the Walls” campaign, which was announced at the end of July 2012 by Abu Du’a, the Islamic State of Iraq’s emir. In that statement, Abu Du’a said that emphasis would be placed on efforts “to release the Muslim prisoners everywhere.”
