Traffic snarls, violence accompany Iraqi motorcades
The Iraqi prime minister has taken steps to confront the ministerial and official convoys that often act as though they are above the law, but the problems the enormous security details cause are unlikely to end.
BAGHDAD — On Feb. 18, the bodyguards of national security adviser Faleh al-Fayad beat up a group of journalists and media workers in the Al-Nahrain Center for Strategic Studies when they refused to leave the conference Fayad was attending. The incident triggered a major political and public controversy.
On Jan. 29, in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, the security detail of Iraqi Human Rights Minister Mohammed Mahdi al-Bayati attacked a traffic officer and police officers who stopped the minister’s convoy in the course of regulating traffic. On Jan. 31, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered an investigation into the incident.
This was not the first time that people have complained about altercations cause by the convoys and security details of state officials, and such incidents are widely discussed by the public in the traditional and social media.
Trouble with the convoys of state officials in Iraq is not new. Before 2003, the convoy of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was a common sight in cities. Saddam’s convoy was attacked by oppositionists in Dujail, Salahuddin province, in 1982. As punishment, 143 residents were executed and several properties were destroyed by the security services of Saddam’s regime.
