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Former Iraqi pilot accused
in 2003 UN bombing
BAGHDAD — A former
Iraqi airline pilot who has been in custody for seven months was accused
yesterday by Iraqi authorities of orchestrating the 2003 bombing of the
UN Baghdad headquarters in which 22 people were killed. Then-UN envoy to
Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello, a Brazilian, was among those who died when
a truck bomb exploded at the Canal Hotel, which served as the UN
operations centre before and just after the 2003 US invasion.
The suspect, identified as Ali Hussein al Azzawi or Abu Imad, has been
charged with supervising several other attacks also, including an attack
on an Iraqi army troop carrier in 2006 and bombings in eastern Baghdad
in 2007 and 2008, Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al
Moussawi said. “He is the direct perpetrator of many terrorist attacks
and on top of them, supervised the planning of the bomb attack on the UN
headquarters in August 2003 ... and he is responsible for linking Al
Qaeda terrorist networks in Europe and Iraq,” Moussawi said at a news
conference.
Azzawi was arrested in Baghdad on June 26, Moussawi said. He did not say
where the suspect had been for the last seven months or why the charges
were announced only now. Moussawi showed videotapes of what he described
as the confessions of three men who said they had received orders from
Azzawi. One suspect, who identified himself as Mohammad Abdullah Hassan,
said Azzawi acted as a financial manager for Al Qaeda in addition to
planning attacks.
“He used to distribute money to the soldiers and heads of the districts
(in Diyala province) when he came to meet us,” said Hassan, who appeared
in the video with several days’ growth of beard and wearing a dark blue
prison uniform. Moussawi said Azzawi also negotiated ransoms with the
relatives of foreigners kidnapped in Iraq, but did not give further
details. Moussawi said Azzawi had been a pilot for Iraqi Airways, the
state-owned airline. He played a short video clip of Azzawi in which the
suspect only gave his name, birth date and address. |
