Al-Qaeda Branch Claims Iraq Suicide Attack
WASHINGTON (AFP) -- An Al-Qaeda affiliate in Iraq has claimed responsibility for a recent suicide attack in former dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit that left 58 people dead, a US-based monitoring service said Saturday.
The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) claimed responsibility for Tuesday's raid on Tikrit's provincial council building which led to a bloody, hours-long gun battle with Iraq security forces.
It said its five-man suicide team launched the attack, which also left 97 people wounded, to avenge "crimes" against Sunni Muslim inmates at a local prison, according to a translation of an ISI statement by the SITE Intelligence Group.
"The ministry of war of the Islamic State of Iraq directed the security details in Salaheddin province to direct an appropriate strike against these people that would bring them back to reason and repulse their evil from the oppressed Muslims," a SITE translation of the statement read.
Tikrit is capital of the Sunni-majority Salaheddin province, which has long been a bastion of a Sunni insurgency and remains the scene of bloody attacks.
The attack raised questions about security after US forces complete their Iraq pull out at the end of this year.
Forces from Iraq's Shiite-majority government are now solely responsible for the country's security, with the United States having declared a formal end to combat operations in the country in late August 2010.
US forces responded to the brazen Tikrit attack and some were lightly wounded, according to the US military.
There was no immediate claim of the attack until ISI's statement, which SITE said was released on jihadist forums on Friday.
Iraqi officials had said the raid bore the hallmark of the Al-Qaeda affiliate.
ISI provided moment-by-moment details about the bloody clash with security forces. It said its "lions of Islam" first detonated a car bomb to clear the way for the fighters, then one of them set off his explosives in a suicide vest, before colleagues fired guns and hurled hand grenades at Iraqi government soldiers.
The group said its men engaged in a seven-hour firefight with security forces before running out of ammunition.
"The leader of the group gave the command to stop the clash, go to the entrances of the building and lie in wait for the groups of apostates, so as to detonate their explosive belts against them and thus kill more of the charges of the devil," ISI said, according to SITE's translation.
Tikrit remains volatile. In mid-January, a suicide bomber killed 50 people in a crowd waiting outside a police recruitment center, in the first major strike in Iraq since the formation of a new government on December 21.
Al-Qaeda Branch Claims Iraq Suicide Attack
WASHINGTON (AFP) -- An Al-Qaeda affiliate in Iraq has claimed responsibility for a recent suicide attack in former dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit that left 58 people dead, a US-based monitoring service said Saturday.
The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) claimed responsibility for Tuesday's raid on Tikrit's provincial council building which led to a bloody, hours-long gun battle with Iraq security forces.
It said its five-man suicide team launched the attack, which also left 97 people wounded, to avenge "crimes" against Sunni Muslim inmates at a local prison, according to a translation of an ISI statement by the SITE Intelligence Group.
"The ministry of war of the Islamic State of Iraq directed the security details in Salaheddin province to direct an appropriate strike against these people that would bring them back to reason and repulse their evil from the oppressed Muslims," a SITE translation of the statement read.
Tikrit is capital of the Sunni-majority Salaheddin province, which has long been a bastion of a Sunni insurgency and remains the scene of bloody attacks.
The attack raised questions about security after US forces complete their Iraq pull out at the end of this year.
Forces from Iraq's Shiite-majority government are now solely responsible for the country's security, with the United States having declared a formal end to combat operations in the country in late August 2010.
US forces responded to the brazen Tikrit attack and some were lightly wounded, according to the US military.
There was no immediate claim of the attack until ISI's statement, which SITE said was released on jihadist forums on Friday.
Iraqi officials had said the raid bore the hallmark of the Al-Qaeda affiliate.
ISI provided moment-by-moment details about the bloody clash with security forces. It said its "lions of Islam" first detonated a car bomb to clear the way for the fighters, then one of them set off his explosives in a suicide vest, before colleagues fired guns and hurled hand grenades at Iraqi government soldiers.
The group said its men engaged in a seven-hour firefight with security forces before running out of ammunition.
"The leader of the group gave the command to stop the clash, go to the entrances of the building and lie in wait for the groups of apostates, so as to detonate their explosive belts against them and thus kill more of the charges of the devil," ISI said, according to SITE's translation.
Tikrit remains volatile. In mid-January, a suicide bomber killed 50 people in a crowd waiting outside a police recruitment center, in the first major strike in Iraq since the formation of a new government on December 21.