Iraq has been hit by almost daily attacks in the recent times, raising fears of a return to the worst levels of sectarian violence of the dark days of 2006-07 when the pace and scale of brutality was at its height. The latest surge of violence has left nearly 2,000 dead since the beginning of April this year in a blistering string of apparently coordinated bombings and a shooting across Iraq a decade after a US-led invasion.
Violence has spiked sharply in Iraq in recent months, with the death toll rising to levels not seen since 2008. More than 190 have died in the month of June 2013 alone.The worst violence took place in Baghdad when ten car bombs ripped through open-air markets and other areas of Shia neighbourhoods, killing at least 51 people and wounding over 150 others on June 16. The very next day, three bomb attacks in Iraq including a blast inside a roadside restaurant killed 12 people.
These attacks came soon after the leader of al-Qaida’s Iraq arm, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, defiantly rejected an order from the terror network’s central command to stop claiming control over the organization’s Syria affiliate, according to a message purportedly from him. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s comments reveal his group’s determination to link its own fight against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad with the cause of rebels trying to topple the Iran-backed Syrian regime. In May this year, around 80 people lost their lives in Shia and Sunni areas of Iraq in what is viewed as one of the most sustained sectarian bouts of sectarian violence the country has seen in recent years. Sectarian tensions have been worsening since Iraq’s minority Sunnis began protesting what they say is mistreatment at the hands of the Shia-led government. The mass demonstrations, which began in December, have largely been peaceful, but the number of attacks rose sharply after a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest camp in northern Iraq on April 23. Iraq’s Shia majority, which was oppressed under the late dictator Saddam Hussein, now holds the levers of power in the country.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but the fact that they all occurred in Shia areas raised suspicion that Sunni militants were involved. Though there was no claim of responsibility for any of the attacks, they bore the hallmark of al-Qaida in Iraq, which uses car bombs, suicide bombers and coordinated attacks, most aimed at security forces and members of Iraq’s Shiite majority. Also, Sunni insurgents, particularly al-Qaeda in Iraq, are known to employ such large-scale bombings. Violence has also struck some Sunni areas, hitting the city of Samarra north of Baghdad and the western province of Anbar, a Sunni stronghold and the birthplace of the protest movement.
The surge in bloodshed accompanies rising sectarian tensions within Iraq and growing concerns that its unrest is being fanned by the Syrian civil war raging next door. The US Embassy condemned the attacks, saying it stands with Iraqis “who seek to live in peace and who reject cowardly acts of terrorism such as this.” The US withdrew its last combat troops from Iraq in December 2011, though a small number remain as an arm of the embassy to provide training and facilitate arms sales.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s comments reveal his group’s determination to link its own fight against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad with the cause of rebels trying to topple the Iran-backed Syrian regime. The recent tide of sectarian tensions that erupted into the worst violence seen in Iraq in five years is testing the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. His ability to contain the crisis hinges on a conflict raging beyond this control in Syria. Experts say that the prospect of a regional power shift driven by the bloody civil war next door, where a mostly Sunni rebel movement is struggling to topple the Shia-dominated regime, has emboldened Iraq’s Sunni minority to challenge its own Shia government. This has amplified fears within Maliki’s administration that Iraq may soon be swept up in a spillover war. According to experts, a rebel victory in Syria could benefit Sunnis in Iraq. Iraq’s Sunnis have been staging a growing wave of anti-government demonstrations in provinces where they are in majority for five months, raising tensions that some say could re-ignite the civil war that peaked in 2006.
According to some analysts, the explosive situation underpinned by what critics call mistakes of the decade-long US occupation that enshrined sectarianism, as been aggravated by Maliki’s increasingly authoritarian policies. Tribal leaders of Iraq view the conflict in Sirya and Iraq as inescapably intertwined. Many of them feel Maliki is a puppet in a conspiracy by Shia-majority Iran to achieve regional domination. They say Sirya’s Iran-backed regime is no different. Meanwhile, Iraq’s embittered Sunnis say the successes of the Syrian rebels have given them the confidence to challenge what they call worsening government discrimination and abuse against the minority that once ruled the country under Saddam Hussein.
The surge in bloodshed has exasperated Iraqis, who have lived for years with fear and uncertainty bred of random violence. The current spell of violence has triggered fears that the country could be turning towards civil war – PTI Feature
