Iraq shows video it says is confession of bomber

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi official on Sunday showed a video of what he said was a supporter of late dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath party confessing to organising one of the truck bomb blasts last week in which 95 people died.

The man, who appeared oddly calm for someone accused of taking part in the bloodiest attack of the year in Iraq, said he had orchestrated the bombing together with a leader of a branch of the now outlawed Baath party who was living in Syria.

"A month ago Sattam Farhan ... called from Syria and asked me to conduct a bombing operation to shake the administration," said the bald and moustachioed man, described as a former police chief named Wissam Ali Kadhim Ibrahim.

"He said that if you can't do it, we have other factions that can."

Many Saddam loyalists fled to Syria after the fall of Saddam in 2003, and Iraqi officials frequently blame neighbouring countries for fomenting violence in Iraq.

Baghdad security spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi, who showed the video to the media, had previously announced the arrest of a group of Baathists he alleged were responsible for Wednesday's bombings, which devastated the foreign and finance ministries.

His office said on Sunday shortly after the taped confession was aired that every police officer manning checkpoints on the day of the blasts between Baghdad and Diyala province, where the prisoner said the attack was put together, had been arrested.

The bombings, in which more than 1,000 people were wounded, many by glass from the ministries' shattered windows, dealt a blow to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's claim ahead of an election in January to have presided over a fall in violence.

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