[Iran Press TV Latest] Iraqi police forces have arrested two men, one believed to be an al-Qaeda member, over a car bombing at a market in the southern town of al-Bathaa. Speaking at a press conference Wednesday night, the chief of the Dhi Qar police General Sabah al-Fatlawi said, "We managed to arrest two persons, one of them believed to be one of the perpetrators of the terrorist attack in al-Bathaa." Al-Fatlawi added that the "al-Bathaa bombing was launched by terrorists from another Iraqi province not from Dhi Qar."
At least 30 people were killed and 70 others injured after a car rigged with explosives and TNT drove through a market in al-Bathaa town. Nobody has so far claimed responsibility for the fatal attack.
Addressing a meeting of security chiefs in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki branded the blast in al-Bathaa, as "a criminal operation with a political message" "These operations will intensify...to try to make the elections fail, but they will not succeed, God willing," Maliki said.
The Iraqi leader stressed that the attack had been devised by those who wanted to see Iraq struggling with sectarian unrest and bloodshed. "The population realizes that there cannot be a return to sectarianism and fighting," he said.
Meanwhile, Dhi Qar's governor has ordered the dismissal of the al-Bathaa police chief and the formation of an operation room under his supervision following the terror assault.