Suicide Bombers Kill 120 in Iraq-Nam

Those who thought that Iraq-Nam was settling down got a rude awakening this morning, as at least four bombs went off in that country killing around 120 and wounding a reported 425 more. Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki issued a statement that said, "The timing of the cowardly terrorist attacks . . . after parliament overcame the last obstacle ahead of the elections, confirm that the enemies of Iraq and its people aim to sow chaos in the country." One might add that they have done a very good job of it, too.

The suicide attacks appear to mark a change in the strategy of the Sunni insurrectionist, whether they are Al Qaeda in Iraq or Saddamite Ba'athists. They used to undertake frequent attacks, harming a few people but largely making markets and other soft targets dangerous. Now, it appears that they are after bigger, harder targets and using bigger bombs to do it.

According to Reuters, the first blast was at a police checkpoint south of Baghdad. Another was in the parking lot of a courthouse after passing a checkpoint. A third saw a car blow up near a judicial training center. The fourth, which was not a suicide attack, hit a temporary building used by the Finance Ministry. All hard targets, and all associated with the al-Maliki regime.

These come on the heels of other rather spectacular attacks in August and October. In the former 95 people died when the Finance and Foreign Ministries were hit. October's death toll was 155 in bombings of the Justice Ministry and of the Baghdad governor's office. In November, the country suffered its lightest civilian death toll with "just" 88 dead, if one believes the government's figures.

Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, an Iraq-Namese ex-national security adviser, explained what is going on. "The aim is to show the government is unable to protect civilians and its own people and also to deter people from going to ballot boxes." The elections are scheduled for March, having been postponed once already. The odds are quite good that a great many more will die because the Green Zone government can't protect its people when a large segment of that population view it as illegitimate.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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