BAGHDAD — Insurgents wearing military uniforms stormed Iraq’s central bank Sunday during an apparent robbery attempt, battling security forces in a three-hour standoff after bombs exploded nearby in a coordinated daylight attack that left as many as 26 people dead.
The assault on Iraq’s top financial institution stoked fears that insurgents are taking advantage of political deadlock after inconclusive March 7 elections to try to derail security gains.
The 325-member parliament was due to convene today, but analysts have said agreement on a new government could be months away.
Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman, blamed the attack on al-Qaeda in Iraq but said no money had been stolen from the bank, which holds gold deposits and U.S. and Iraqi currency.
The violence began with the bombings, which sent plumes of smoke over the city skyline, although there were conflicting reports about the number and nature of the blasts.
The first bomb went off on a road near an electrical generator, al-Moussawi said. Insurgents wearing army uniforms then tried to enter the bank through two entrances, exchanging gunfire with the guards.
He said three suicide bombers detonated their explosives vests at the main entrance of the bank, while two other militants were killed by security forces at the second gate.
Iraqi security forces then stormed the building, prompting a standoff that lasted at least three hours, according to al-Moussawi’s account.
An unknown number of attackers managed to get to a higher floor and set a fire to burn some documents and might have escaped by blending in with bank employees. He said the motive appeared to be to steal the bank’s deposits, then blow up the building.
Local police officers said a bomb in a parked car also exploded about 900 yards from the bank.
Al-Moussawi said 15 people were killed, but police and hospital officials later put the casualty toll at 26 dead and more than 60 wounded.
Violent robberies that bear some of the hallmarks of politically motivated attacks have been on the rise in Iraq, as sectarian violence ebbs. Iraqi officials have attributed at least some of them to cash-strapped militants desperately trying to raise money for their operations.
But the attack Sunday appeared also to have a political motive as insurgents led by al-Qaeda in Iraq seek to undermine confidence in the U.S.- backed government and other state institutions.
It was reminiscent of violence that was common at the height of sectarian violence that almost pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-07 before a series of U.S.-Iraqi offensives.
