BAGHDAD – In an astonishing heist, guards at a bank here made off with more than a quarter-billion dollars on Wednesday, according to an official at the Interior Ministry.
CHRIS HONDROS/The Associated Press
Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner called al-Qaeda in Iraq the principal threat to U.S. and Iraqi security forces in Iraq.
The robbery of $282 million from the Dar Es Salaam bank, a private financial institution, raised more questions than it answered, and officials were tight-lipped about the crime. Local police said two guards engineered the robbery, but an official at the Interior Ministry said three guards were involved.
Both confirmed that the stolen money was in American dollars, not Iraqi dinars. It was unclear why the bank had that much money on hand in dollars or how the robbers managed to move such a large amount without being detected.
Several officials speculated that the robbers had connections to militias, because it would be difficult for them to move without being searched through many checkpoints in Baghdad.
Otherwise Wednesday, there was only scattered violence in the city, although 18 bodies were found by the police in different neighborhoods, signaling that sectarian killing had not ebbed.
In a village just north of Fallujah, however, extremists in two vehicles, possibly in an act of revenge, forced the residents of a house inside, locked the doors, and blew up the building. Eleven people died, according to a report by U.S. Marines who operate in the area. The house is owned by a member of the local provincial security forces, which are fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq, a homegrown Arab Sunni insurgent group that includes some foreigners.
U.S. military leaders said Wednesday that they expect al-Qaeda in Iraq to “lash out” soon in response to the ongoing American troop surge with “spectacular attacks” designed to aggravate sectarian tensions.
Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said al-Qaeda in Iraq, which U.S. officials say is linked to Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda, is the principal threat to U.S. and Iraqi security forces in Iraq.
He also labeled the group “the main accelerant in sectarian violence,” despite its small size and what U.S. officials say is a mostly foreign membership.
For the past three weeks, U.S. forces have been battling al-Qaeda in Iraq in and around Baqouba, the capital of Diyala Province northeast of Baghdad, and in Mosul to the north as well as Ramadi in western Anbar Province.
The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post contributed to this report.
looks like someones gonna be buying arms…
[/B]
