Iraq Orders Police To Round Up Beggars

There is a story coming out of Iraq in which the Iraqi Interior Ministry has ordered police to round up beggars, vagabonds and mentally disabled people from the streets of Baghdad to prevent them from being used by insurgents as suicide bombers, a spokesman said Tuesday.

The decision came after a series of suicide attacks, including two female bombers who struck pet markets in Baghdad on Feb. 1, killing nearly 100 people. Iraqi and U.S. officials have said the women were mentally disabled and apparently unwitting bombers. The people detained in the Baghdad sweep will be handed over to governmental institutions that can provide shelter and care for them, Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said.

From the title I thought that it was just the Iraqi government trying to change its' image, and hide their problems from the eyes of the world; but if al-Qaeda is going to use "innocents" to carry out their evil, it makes sense to put those "innocents", in safer locations, than where they are currently, and make it harder for al-Qaeda to use them!


innocents