Iraq’s Fallujah victim of ‘conspiracy’: Security source

By Suleiman al-Qubeisi

ANBAR, Iraq (AA) – An Iraqi security official on Tuesday alleged that a "conspiracy" was being hatched against Fallujah one day after the city was shaken by twin suicide bombings that killed nine and injured dozens.

A suicide bomber on Monday drove his explosive-laden vehicle into a security checkpoint, blowing it up at the entrance of Fallujah’s central Nazal district.

A second bomber blew himself up shortly afterward at a local police department.

"The bombings in Fallujah come as a reaction to ongoing military operations aimed at retaking the city of Mosul from the Daesh terrorist group," Ragai Barakat, a member of the Anbar local council’s security committee, told Anadolu Agency.

According to Barakat, Daesh sympathizers have infiltrated Fallujah, where they have prepared car-bombs and planted explosive devices.

"There is a conspiracy being hatched against the city," he alleged, going on to accuse police officers in Fallujah of "failing to shoulder their responsibilities".

"They are the same officers who had earlier abandoned Anbar and Fallujah. Now, they have returned to their posts," he said.

Iraq has suffered a devastating security vacuum since mid-2014, when Daesh captured the northern city of Mosul -- now the target of a wide-ranging army offensive -- and overran vast swathes of territory in the country’s north and west.

Since then, some 58,000 people countrywide have been killed in sporadic acts of violence, according to UN figures.