Iraq boosts security after deadliest day this year
10:39 / 12.05.2010 Iraqi forces beefed up checkpoints, conducted house-to-house searches and rifled through cars Tuesday looking for suspects behind a devastating string of attacks across the country that killed 119 people a day earlier, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.
The sheer breadth of the attacks was a blow after recent victories against insurgents and demonstrated the militants’ resilience. Officials blamed the violence, which stretched from the volatile north to the normally peaceful Shiite south, on the political vacuum resulting from inconclusive March 7 elections. Two months after the voting, it still is not clear who will control the next Iraqi government.
Brig. Gen. Ralph Baker, a former Pentagon counterterror expert who now oversees U.S. military operations in eastern Baghdad, said the complexity of the attacks indicates they were all coordinated.
"Given the timing of the attacks in Baghdad and (the western province of) Anbar, coupled with the activities up north and south, I think you can very clearly say it was a coordinated effort," he told The Associated Press.
Baker noted that many of the attacks were aimed at Iraqi security forces and Shiite civilians — two popular targets with al-Qaida in Iraq. "They’re still trying to show they can re-ignite the cycle of sectarian violence," he said.
Most of the victims of Monday’s violence were in two Shiite cities — Hillah and Basra — adding to concerns about a resurgence of the Sunni-Shiite sectarian warfare that peaked in 2006 and 2007.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite bloc has tried to squeeze out election front-runner Ayad Allawi — a secular Shiite who was heavily backed by Sunnis — by forging an alliance last week with another religious Shiite coalition. The union, which is just four seats short of a majority in parliament, will likely lead to four more years of a government dominated by Shiites, much like the current one.
Sunni anger at Shiite domination of successive governments since Saddam’s 2003 ouster was a key reason behind the insurgency that sparked sectarian warfare three years later. If Allawi is perceived as not getting his fair share of power, that could outrage the Sunnis who supported him and possibly create more sympathy for militants.
The bloody insurgent strikes against 10 cities and towns also threw into doubt whether Iraqi security forces can protect the country as the U.S. prepares to withdraw half of its remaining 92,000 troops in Iraq over the next four months.
"The security forces were doing their job, but lapses happen occasionally and then you can’t stop a suicide bomber or anything else," said Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal.Bu yazı ( 357 ) - dəfə oxunmuşdur
