Iraqi Official: US 'behind Baghdad hotel blast'

Press TV
Wednesday June 27, 2007

An Iraqi official has accused the United States of being behind the suicide bomb that killed at least 12 in a hotel in central Baghdad.

Muhammad al-Saberi, Iraqi envoy for talks with tribal leaders in Jordan and Syria, on Tuesday held the Bush Administration responsible for the blast at the Mansour Hotel, where a group of Sunni tribal leaders from Iraq's Anbar province had gathered to discuss ways and means of curbing ongoing violence in the country.

"Because the gathering [in the hotel] was supposed to be a step toward establishing national unity among Iraqi tribes, the US, through its terrorist operatives, tried to thwart the move," IRIB quoted al- Saberi as saying.

The Iraqi official said that Washington knows full well that if security and stability come into Iraq from one door, its troops have to leave from the other and have no more pretext to prolong their stay.

"That's why the White House is at odds with bringing peace into Iraq," he observed.

Al-Saberi noted the tribal leaders including al-Ani al-Obeidi, al-Alusi, al-Joburi and al-Wazani in a reaction to the terrorist act in Mansour Hotel, had pledged in a letter they would broaden talks with the Iraqi government.

According to al-Saberi, the Iraqi government plans to put an end to continued bloodletting across the war-ravaged country via talks with Sunni tribal leaders in the west to help suppress the extremist al-Qaeda-linked militants.

On Monday a man wearing a belt of explosives walked into the Mansour Hotel 's bustling lobby around noon, approached the reception desk and detonated his bomb, killing more than 12 and injuring dozens more.

Police said among the dead was Fassal al-Guood, a tribal sheikh and former governor of western Anbar province and al-Iraqiya TV journalist Rahim al-Maliki.