Iraqi VP behind attacks: probe

BAGHDAD - The Associated Press

An Iraqi investigation panel said the country’s Sunni vice president and his employees were behind years of deadly attacks on security officials and Shiite pilgrims.

Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar did not offer any evidence yesterday to back up the panel’s findings. Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi has denied the charges and accuses Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of coordinating a smear campaign to consolidate power. The independent judicial council appointed the nine-judge investigating committee after the government issued an arrest warrant against al-Hashemi in December, throwing Iraq’s politics into chaos. Al-Hashemi has been holed up in autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq.