UNITED NATIONS - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is calling for an international probe of last month's deadly bomb attacks on two government ministries in Baghdad, according to letters seen here Thursday.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he received a letter from Maliki dated August 30 requesting that an independent international commission of enquiry be set up to look into the August 19 attacks that killed 95 people and wounded 600.
"The scope and nature of these crimes calls for an investigation beyond Iraqi legal jurisdiction and prosecution of the perpetrators before a special international criminal tribunal," said the Maliki letter.
"The magnitude of these crimes demands that they be addressed immediately by the international community," it added.
Earlier Thursday, Maliki also accused Syrian intelligence of having hosted a meeting attended by Iraqi Baathists and Sunni extremists.
On a trip to Damascus last month Maliki gave the authorities evidence of "a meeting at Zabadani near Damascus on July 30 including Baathists and Takfiris in the presence of Syrian secret services," he told a meeting of Iraqi ambassadors.
The Baath party is a Sunni organization, some of whose members remain loyal to Saddam Hussein, while the Takfiris are Sunni extremists.
"Why this insistence on sheltering people wanted by Iraqi justice?" Maliki asked.
The day after his August 18 visit to Syria, two bloody attacks targeted government ministries in Baghdad.
Relations between Iraq and Syria plummeted after Baghdad alleged Damascus was harboring leaders behind the two truck bombings.
Last week, Iraq recalled its ambassador from Damascus and Syria retaliated within hours by withdrawing its envoy from Baghdad.
Maliki alleged on Monday that 90 percent of foreign terrorists who have infiltrated Iraq did so via Syria.
Syria's Assad: Israel logjamming peace talks