WUNRN
IRAQ - WOMEN ARRESTED BY MILITANTS
SEARCHING FOR WANTED RELATIVES
Baghdad,
Iraq - October 29, 2012 (AP)
An
al-Qaida affiliated group in Iraq has claimed responsibility for wave of
attacks that killed dozens of people in the past two days during a major Muslim
holiday. In a statement posted Monday on a militant website, the Islamic State
of Iraq, al-Qaida's Iraqi branch, said the attacks were in response to what the
group alleged were the arrests of Sunni women to pressure their wanted
relatives to turn themselves to Iraqi security forces.
The al-Qaida statement warned the Shite-led government to stop persecuting Sunni tribes and women, otherwise "they will not dream of security in the day or night and in Eid (holiday) or not."
The Eid al-Adha attacks killed about 50 people despite the government's efforts to secure the four-day holiday.