Sixteen explosions, most of them targeting workers and school children during the morning rush-hour, killed at least 68 people and wounded more than 185, in a series of coordinated bomb attacks in Baghdad on Thursday. It is thought that four car-bombs and as many as ten IEDs (improvised explosive devices) were detonated, only four days after the last US troops left the country. The morning attacks, which hit various locations were, surprisingly, not aimed at security targets, but rather they targeted a kindergarten, people on their way to work, and the anti-corruption agency. This was clearly a statement, although it is not yet clear from whom, that this is the beginning of a conflict that may not go away any time soon.
The bombings are the worst in many months and raise fears of rising sectarian tensions as the unity government faces internal divisions within its ranks. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attacks, although some analysts say the level of co-ordination suggests the work of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Iraq’s one-year-old power-sharing government has been in turmoil since Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shia, issued an arrest warrant for Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni, on terror charges. Mr Hashemi denies the charges. He is currently under the protection of the regional government in Iraqi Kurdistan, but Mr Maliki has demanded that he be returned. The main Sunni bloc in parliament, the al-Iraqiyya group, has boycotted the assembly in protest.
Iraq’s fragile political consensus seems to be capable of unraveling along religious and ethnic lines, now that the US forces are no longer in Iraq to help stabilize the situation. The uneasy cooperation between Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish groups are now under extreme pressure as the different factions try to maintain the balance without the help of the US advisors.
Analysis It is difficult to know with certainty who is behind the current wave of bombings, but it is thought that Iran is behind most of the ethnic and religious strife in the country, one way or another. Iranian meddling in Iraq goes back to 2003, when the US first invaded the country in the second Gulf War.
Iran first flooded the streets with counterfeit $100 bills to destabilize the country, then inflamed the strife between Sunni and Shi’ah by bombing Iraqi mosques indiscriminately, and then introduced new weapons, including IEDs and shaped charges that could penetrate heavily armored vehicles.
The Shi’ah majority, with its affinity for and support from Iran, is determined to maintain its power, while also needing to settle scores with its Sunni rivals. The diverging political ambitions of Iraqi leaders, who represent a many religious and political factions within the country, contribute heavily to the volatile nature of the situation.
The bombs are a reminder to Americans about the damaged country they have left behind, and raise many questions about the US mission in Iraq, whether it was achieved, and what responsibility we now hold for the condition in which we left the country.
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“It is thought….”
“It is thought….”
by whom?
Good question. The quote in the article read, “It is thought that four car-bombs and as many as ten IEDs (improvised explosive devices) were detonated…”. The reports came from a number of sources, none of them confirmed. The problem is that bombs like these do so much damage that it is often difficult, given the chaos that occurs in the early stages of investigation, to know what kind of explosives were used or how the bomb was delivered. One report stated that one bomb was a suicide bomber, but that was later removed from the dispatches. I shall be more precise in the future. Thanks for the comment. Ilana Freedman, Editor
We Failed in our mission because bush obama had no clue it was a religious Jihad and how to fight it on those terms.. The Iranians had it right the evil is in the mosques where they are taught the hate.
It had nothing to do with Saddam or Baghdad but they like to kill each other over itty bitty differences in interpreting the koran
The only worthwhile thing about Iraq is oil…we should be protecting the pipelines because it’s in the worlds interest to do so.
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inflamed the strife between Sunni and Shi’ah by bombing Iraqi mosques indiscriminately