Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has turned the heat up on his Arab neighbors after last month’s double bombings at the foreign and finance ministries, which killed about 100 people. Maliki and his government have repeatedly accused Syria of providing shelter to those behind the blasts. Syria has denied the charge, and some Iraqi politicians have raised serious questions about whether Syria or the Baath Party was involved.

Today, Maliki once more slammed his neighbors. “We will continue looking [for a way] to close all the gaps and the doors from which the killers can breathe again. We censure the others from our brothers, friends and the neighborly countries,” Maliki said on a visit to the southern city of Karbala. “They used to say that they are with us and they did stand with us in certain situations, but how can we describe the practice of embracing the killers. To where will they be exported [next] time, to Iraq again or to a different country? Can the evil be contained to one specific country?” 

Maliki has asked the U.N. Security Council to establish a formal investigation into the bombings. He has also accused Syrian intelligence agents of sitting in on a meeting in July of Baath Party officials and Islamic militants. The government sees it as the latest episode in which Syria has allegedly been complicit in the activities of anti-Iraq militants. Iraqi security officials confirmed today that they had sent additional security forces to reinforce the vast Syria-Iraq border. 

Since the bombings, the government has revived the practice of showing taped confessions from alleged militants. Two confessions have been shown on state television and a third was aired at a news conference. The first confession was of an Iraqi arrested for the Aug. 19 attack, who blamed Baath Party leaders in Syria for planning the attack. The other confessions have shown foreign fighters recounting their alleged travels through Syria. There is no way to verify whether the taped remarks were genuine or staged.  But they mark a concerted effort to blame Syria in part for recent security breaches.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the state channel broadcast the purported confessions of an alleged fighter from Yemen named Mohammed Oud.

The following are excerpts from the broadcast:

A major Shiite pilgrimage went smoothly Saturday in Baghdad, marking a success for Iraqi security forces after the departure of most US troops from the cities.

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Why do young Saudi men keep popping up to do bad things in dangerous places?

Saudi militants are instigating terror and death from Yemen to Europe and from Iraq to Pakistan. The Saudi government has been attempting to calm jihadist passions by enrolling extremists in reform schools and silencing radical preachers. There has been progress, but the kingdom’s ultra-conservative brand of Wahhabi Islam keeps churning out those with masked faces and crisscrossed bandoliers.

Tariq Alhomayed, editor of the English-language daily Asharq Al-Awsat, explored the problem Saudi Arabia and the Arab world face in an opinion piece headlined: "Saudi Youth and Terrorism: When Will It End?"

“The ideological war in Saudi Arabia [against extremism] continues to be fought but below the expected level, even though the Saudi media is fiercely in opposition to extremism and the extremists, and there is a social aversion to Al Qaeda, the takfiris, and those who support them,” writes Alhomayed. “But despite this we continue to witness the destruction of our youth.”

He adds: “We should blame ourselves.”

Read the rest of the story here.

-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: The aftermath of a suicide bombing in Baghdad. Credit: Reuters

Iraqis stopped to smell the roses this week as they visited the first  Baghdad flower festival since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime.  The exhibit at  Zawra Park in the center of Baghdad was another sign of people’s wish for normalcy after years of bloodshed.

The exhibition was advertised with the slogan “Baghdad, Flowers and Peace” and had Arab and foreign companies displaying their products.

By Usama Redha in Baghdad

My recollections of the beginnings of the Iraq war in 2003 and how life has changed since then:

MARCH 2003

I had lost all hopes of changing my life, getting a real job or at least leaving Iraq because I was not a Baathist. I used to stay awake until 3 or 4 am listening to the radio reports and news about the possibility of toppling Saddam. The regime jammed the radio stations and the broadcasts often faded out amid static and hissing.

I had many officers’ friends. We used to talk about the situation. It was the favorite question for Iraqis: Will Bush strike or not? Was he serious? Day after day the situation was escalating, people were preparing for a long war. They were buying plastic jugs to store water, dates, fuel, and all the necessary things to avoid leaving their homes. They dug wells behind their houses, but the ground water was considered a carrier for typhoid, cholera, and amoebic dysentery.

A car bomb killed at least 18 people and injured 40 today in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad. It was the second major blast in the capital in a week and a reminder of the fragile state of security as American troops prepare to leave Iraq's cities.

The latest attack occurred in the northeastern neighborhood of Shaab, a mainly Shiite district once controlled by militiamen loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr. Like most of the capital, in recent months the neighborhood has seen a sharp drop in violence. Police said today's blast occurred shortly after midday in a busy area near a bus terminal and small market. Among the dead were children, according to initial reports.

On Monday, a bomb in western Baghdad's Abu Ghraib district killed at least nine people, and another blast that day killed 18 people north of Baghdad in Diyala province.

U.S. military officials say violence is at its lowest level across Iraq in more than five years, but rarely does a day go by without at least one report of a bombing or assassination somewhere in the country. Under a U.S. plan to reduce the number of American forces in Iraq, American troops are to withdraw from bases in cities and towns by the end of this summer. President Obama has said that by August 2010 all combat troops will be gone from Iraq, leaving 35,000 to 50,000 forces to serve as advisors and trainers to Iraqi security forces.

—  Times staff writers

It's bad enough to be homeless. It's worse to be homeless in a war-torn city such as Baghdad. But to be homeless and without even a country to claim you as a citizen? That is the apparent plight of a family living outside a five-star hotel in the Iraqi capital. As we wrote in today's story, Allia Abbis Ali Kassem Tibiti and her parents claim to be from Tibet and moved into their spot because the Chinese Embassy is inside the hotel across the street. They're hoping their presence will force the Chinese to grant them citizenship documents and let them leave Iraq.

Last year, we told the story of Haider Kareem Said, a young Iraqi man whose weight had ballooned to more than 495 pounds, attached precariously to his 5-foot-4 frame. Said was desperate to lose the extra pounds, but like many people, he had failed repeatedly at diets.

Years spent virtually locked in his house because of Baghdad's sectarian war only made matters worse. He spent much of his time sitting in front of the TV eating too much. In August, Said took what some would consider a desperate measure: He had weight-loss surgery. Said had a band surgically wrapped around his stomach by the one Baghdad surgeon who performs the operation, forcing him to eat a fraction of what he had been consuming.

Six months later, we visited Said at his home in eastern Baghdad to see how he's doing.

Baghdad's concrete blast walls make the perfect blank canvas for election posters, though candidates and their supporters have apparently started ripping down posters from the competition.

Judge Qasim Hasan Abodi, head of Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission, said several candidates and political parties have been warned about defacing posters -- as well as putting them in  areas off-limits for posters, including government buildings and security checkpoints.