**Iraq has recalled its ambassador to Damascus and demanded Syria hand over two men accused of masterminding a string of deadly bombings in Baghdad.**On Sunday, Iraqi police broadcast video purportedly showing the confession of a man who took part in Wednesday’s bomb attacks, which killed about 100 people.
The taped confession, which cannot be verified, said a Syrian-based Baathist leader, Sattam Farhan, ordered them.
Iraq and Syria restored diplomatic ties in late 2006 after a break of 24 years.
Many members of the Baath party fled to Syria after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, when the former ruling party of Iraq collapsed and was banned by the occupation authorities.
A cabinet statement called on Syria to hand over Mr Farhan and the other alleged mastermind, Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed.
“The cabinet decided to ask that they be handed over for their direct role in carrying out the terrorist operation,” it added.
The confession, shown at a police news conference, showed a man identified as Wissam Ali Kadhim Ibrahim giving details of the preparation of the attacks.
Although Syria’s Baath party leadership was often the adversary of the Iraqi Baath, correspondents say this latest accusation of a Damascus link is politically explosive.
However, in a separate development, a statement from an extremist Islamist militant group, that is violently opposed to the secular Baathists, has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The Islamic State of Iraq, known to be an al-Qaeda umbrella group, said it had carried out the bombings to “wreck the bastions of infidelity” in Baghdad.
The statement was posted on Tuesday morning on a website commonly used by extremist militant groups.
Last Wednesday’s near-simultaneous truck bombings targeted Baghdad’s finance, foreign and defence ministries.