AP reports that guerrillas set off at least 4 car bombs in Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 69 persons and wounding hundreds. The target of four of the attacks was Shiite Muslim mosques or religious centers. Sunni Arab insurgents have lost the war in Iraq, but they have turned to occasional campaigns of massive bombings in a bid to act as spoilers.
There was also renewed violence in al-Anbar province.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki schizophrenically alleged that the bombings were a reprisal for the killing of two leaders of “al-Qaeda” in Iraq in recent days, but then went on to warn of the dangers still posed by the Baathists (secular Arab nationalists).
The most serious attack was on a mosque in the vast Shiite slum of East Baghdad, Sadr City, killing 36 persons and wounding some 200. In the wake of the bombings, Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr for the first time in two years tried to deploy his paramilitary. He asked that the Mahdi Army mobilize to protect mosques “in cooperation with” the state security forces. Another Sadrist spokesman, Baha’ al-A’raji, told Al-Hayat [Life] that the Mahdi Army had only been mothballed in hopes that the central government would strengthen and would provide security. He observed that that development had not yet taken place.
Iraq is still in the midst of attempting to form a government, and this sectarian violence is intended to disrupt that process.
The militia has been under severe pressure for the past two years, and its leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, was forced into exile from Iraq in the holy city of Qom, where he is said to be acquiring the credentials that would lend him respect in the eyes of the world Shiite community. Dozens of his top commanders have been arrested and put behind bars by the al-Maliki government.
Al-Hayat says that bombings targeted two other Shiite houses of worship. One was founded by the father of fraudster Ahmad Chalabi. The other mosque is associated with the US via the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. This mosque is that of Muhsin al-Hakim, grandfather of the leader of ISCI nowadays, Ammar al-Hakim. Muhsin al-Hakim had been the preeminent Shiite religious authority in the 1960s. Eight persons were killed and 26 wounded at the latter site.
Sadrist spokesman Salah al-Ubaidi blamed the poor procedures of Iraq’s 11th Army Division for the security breach. He contrasted them with those of the police.
Juan, when you said “Sunni Arab insurgents have lost the war in Iraq” but turned into occasional massive bombing, one can assume you mean al Qaeda and few of it’s supporters in Iraq? Specially that it was a large operation that crossed check points and targeted civilians. One rightfully can’t assume you mean freedom fighters that target occupaying forces and it’s supporters. On the other hand you seem to dissmiss al Malaki allegation that it is a Reprisal from al Qaeda. So do you mean it is al Qaeda but not as a reprisal? That seems logical. The danger though is that the average reader that rely on the common definition of insurgency in Iraq “like wiki” would not know the difference, specially that the meaning is lumping resistence with al Qaeda under insurgency. And what is more dangerous is that wikipedia says that poll suggested that 90% of Sunnis in Iraq support that. I can’t blame wikipedia for it’s ignorance in not differentiating between the 90% of Iraqis not just Iraqi Sunnis supporting the resistance and the terror foreign groups “al Qaeda” that kill civilians. But I can kindly ask you to clarify and distinguish between the two in the future so your average reader won’t jump into a wrong conclusion. Thank you.
Juan –
I do want to thank you for all that you are doing with this website. It starts my day, every day, usually at 5:45 before I sally forth to chant and meditate at the Meditation Center downtown (in AA). I am informed, but I am also immunized against the misleading, cynical, and careless misinformation that comes my all day.
However…
One reason I decided to post this comment is that your precision droops a but when you fall into the conventional use of the word schizophrenic to describe, for example, something Maliki said or did. Schizophrenia is a serious disease and not very helpful for use as a metaphor. I am sure you understand what I am saying.
I hope to see you around the corridors again.
Dick Mann
Professor Emeritus of Psychology
“Iraq is still in the midst of attempting to form a government, and this sectarian violence is intended to disrupt that process.”
Didn’t you tell us several years ago that the Paul Bremer era constitution requires 2/3’s majority to form a government, as opposed to the usual 1/2 in the rest of the world. (Except the US where, apparently, we need 60% in the Senate. I digress.)
The new rule is that electing a president requires 2/3s on the first try, but if that fails it can be done with 51%. So 163 is now the magic number.