By CHIP CUMMINS and BEN LANDO
Iraqi lawmakers called a special parliamentary session for next week to assess and try to reform the country's security services, as officials scrambled to contain popular anger over blasts this week that killed more than 100.
At a closed-door meeting Friday, parliamentary leaders questioned the ministers of defense and interior, in charge of the bulk of Iraq's security. They also questioned the head of the Baghdad Security Command, a separate security unit in the capital.
Lawmakers criticized the security services for what many see as a convoluted and sometimes overlapping bureaucracies. "The problem is that there is no strategic coordination between the heads of the security apparatus," Azhar al-Samaraei, a Sunni lawmaker, told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting.
At a news conference following the meeting, lawmakers and ministers vowed a thorough investigation of the attacks and closer vetting of detainees before they are released.
The U.S. State Department initially had said Wednesday that Iraqi officials hadn't requested any additional military help after the Baghdad bombing. But on Friday, officials said Baghdad did ask for assistance.
American troops provided surveillance, intelligence gathering, perimeter security, medical support, and explosive ordnance-disposal teams, according to one U.S. official. The U.S. hasn't been asked to provide any additional security in Baghdad, said another official, U.S. Army Maj. David Shoupe, a military spokesman, according to the Associated Press.
Wednesday's attacks, including two truck bombings near the foreign ministry and the finance ministry, have raised fresh questions about the pace of the American withdrawal from Iraq।
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has enjoyed growing popularity thanks to dramatically improved security. But in recent months, political tensions between Iraq's sects and ethnic groups have increased ahead of parliamentary polls slated for January.
A spate of deadly attacks have raised concerns that the political tension is triggering violence and threatening to spiral into sectarian bloodshed.
Earlier this week, America's top commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, said he wanted to insert American soldiers as a temporary peacekeeping force into areas contested by Iraq's federal government and the Kurdish semiautonomous government in the North.
U.S. officials say they suspect Sunni extremists linked to al Qaeda in the recent violence. But Iraqi politicians have taken to blaming each other.
In Baghdad, prominent politicians from several groups have in recent weeks traded accusations, implicating their foes in the attacks.
A security deal between Washington and Baghdad mandated the withdrawal of American forces from Iraqi cities on June 30. Mr. Maliki's government trumpeted the drawdown as a triumph of Iraqi sovereignty.
Since then Iraqi officials have been loath to seek out fresh military assistance from the 130,000 U.S. troops still in the country.
Interior Minister Jawad Al Bolani, at a press conference after Friday's meeting, said U.S. forces are continuing to provide technical and intelligence-gathering assistance, in accordance with the security pact between the two sides.
In a rare admission, however, he said Iraq would still need to rely on that assistance for some time। "We still will need the support for a while," he said.
Write to Chip Cummins at chip.cummins@wsj.com
