BAGHDAD: Iraqi authorities broadcasted on Sunday a video showing three of Saddam Hussein's Baath party members confessing to have planned massive truck blasts that killed and wounded more than 600 people in central Baghdad last month. Qassim Atta, spokesman of Baghdad Operation Command, told reporters at a press conference aired by the official channel of Iraqia that the three confessed their role in committing the deadly bombings.
Former police officer, Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Hassan Aiyed admitted to plotting Oct. 25 attacks at the Justice Ministry and Baghdad Provincial Council.
"I received a call on Oct. 12 from Abdul Sattar Mahdi Najem (a senior Baath party member in Iraq) telling me that we have orders from the party leadership to prepare for a major bombing in Baghdad near the provincial council and the Justice ministry," he said.
The video also showed two other Baath party members named Abdul Sattar Mahdi Najem and Ammar Abdul Aziz Mahdi were also telling details about their role in the attacks and how they passed checkpoints until they reached their targets in central the capital.
On Oct. 25, also known as "Bloody Sunday", two suicide truck bombings rocked Baghdad's Salhiyah neighborhood, targeting the Justice Ministry and the Baghdad Provincial Council. The attacks killed some 155 people and wounding more than 500 others.
The twin bombings were the deadliest since suicide truck bomb attacks on Aug. 19 which targeted two Iraqi ministries killed and wounded some 1,300 Iraqis.
Observers here see the attacks on the ministries were actually targeting nerve centers of the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Therefore, the attacks were targeting Maliki's re-election efforts which are based on improved security.
Instability and security deterioration are expected to escalate and continue until the national January polls.
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