Attackers pay $10k to pass Iraq checkpoints

BAGHDAD: Attackers paid $10,000 to get a bomb-laden truck past checkpoints and next to the Finance Ministry in last week's attacks in Baghdad, one of the suspected masterminds said in a confession broadcast by Iraqi authorities.

Seeking to fend off widespread criticism over security lapses, the Iraqi military released on Sunday what it said was the confession of a Sunni man it identified as the planner of one of the two suicide truck bombings targeting government buildings in Baghdad.

Iraqi lawmakers and other senior officials have traded blame and called for investigations into how the bombers were able to get the explosives-packed trucks so close to government institutions in the heart of the capital.