Iraqi top security officials began to answer
questions by lawmakers about the latest security failures that allowed the massive deadly bombings during the past few months, an official newspaper reported Sunday.
The state-run al-Sabah newspaper underlined that the top officials said that most of the
seized weapons were coming from Syria and that Baghdad, Diyala and Nineveh provinces were still bastions of insurgency.
The lawmaker faced the top security officials on Saturday and were scheduled to continue the briefing meeting for another session on Sunday, the paper added.
The briefing sessions came after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki agreed that his security
ministers and some other senior officers would attend the parliament session to answer
lawmakers' questions about security lapses that led to the killing and wounding of thousands
of Iraqis in several deadly attacks in Baghdad since August.
The paper quoted Defense Minister Abdul Qader Obeidi as saying to the parliament that
"most of the weapons seized by our troops are Russian made and smuggled from Syria."
Obeidi also stressed that Iraq has to better relations with neighboring countries "through
concluding security agreements."
Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said "the only provinces which remain hot spots in Iraq
are Baghdad, Nineveh and Diyala."
However, Bolani confirmed that the crime figures in Iraq have dropped dramatically,
attributing the latest security lapses to the "maladministration, infighting among Iraqi political parties and bureaucracy," according to the report.
Obeidi, Bolani and National Security Minister Shirwan al-Waili, chief of intelligence,
commander of Baghdad operations all attended the briefing session on Saturday and faced almost the same questions that Maliki faced during a closed-door session held earlier on Thursday, it said.
Previously, an al-Qaida group in Iraq claimed responsibility for the three deadly attacks on Aug. 19, Oct. 25 and Dec. 8.