IRAQ ARRESTS TEAM PROBING PM ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT FOR TAMPERING WITH EVIDENCE

Tue 30 November 2021:

The committee probing a recent drone attack on Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, said yesterday that it had “important leads” in the case.

In an official statement, the Iraqi national security adviser, Qasim Al-Araji, said that the director of explosives control, Sabah Hassan Al-Shibli, had been arrested as well as the forensics officer for “tampering with the evidence.”

Al-Araji explained that the Al-Kadhimi’s residence was targeted on 7 November by “two drones”, adding that they had used “two projectiles, one of which fell on the house’s roof, and the other at the entry of its courtyard.”

“Two teams of anti-explosives and forensic evidence experts were sent to the crime scene and the criminal evidence was taken,” Al-Araji noted.

The official pointed out that Al-Shibli was filmed holding the rocket in a “careless manner only to detonate it a few hours later in the Tigris river.”

“The rocket should have been kept as evidence for further investigation,” Al-Araji stressed, slamming Al-Shibli for not collected any fingerprints before detonating the projectile.

“We have important leads to reach the truth, and investigations must be given sufficient time for accuracy,” Al-Araji reiterated, noting that his committee had asked the Prime Minister’s office “to provide us with the names of his visitors for the past 10 days before the attack” for further investigation.

Al-Araji added that the equipment used in the attack were “homemade”, and that the projectiles were “filled with C-4.”

On 11 November, Baghdad said that Al-Kadhimi had survived a failed assassination attempt by three drones rigged with explosives, two of which were shot down, while the third fell inside his residence. The authorities later reported a number of injuries.

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