Iraq bomb attacks fail to derail US withdrawal
THE resurgence of bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, will not affect the timeline established for the departure of US combat troops, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on 6 April.
However, the attacks underscore the security pressures complicating the political impasse following the surprise outcome of recent parliamentary elections, Middle East analysts suggest.
At least 50 people were killed in as many as eight bomb blasts in the capital on 5 April, building on a nearly week-long spate of attacks that have left some 119 civilians dead, according to published reports. Targeted attacks on members of the Awakening Council - Sunni militias who were given financial incentives to cease their activities in support of Al-Qaeda's operations in Iraq and collaborate with the government - have also claimed the lives of some 25 people in the early days of April. The targeted killings are sees as retributive, carried out by Al-Qaeda insurgents against their former allies.
Al Qaeda is also being implicated in the wider violence as it seeks to capitalise on the failure by the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) to cement stability gains won by US forces during their 2007 surge, in which tens of thousands of troops were deployed to stem the insurgent aggression.
ISF troops have been blamed for a series of lapse and failures and their inability to close security loopholes was cited as one of the reasons for the surprise, albeit narrow, electoral defeat of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, who had staked his political future on his ability to ensure security across Iraq.
Despite some USD 20 billion in training, capacity building and resourcing spent by the United States to reconstitute the armed forces, the ISF's more than 650,000 personnel have failed to intercept or deter a series of politically motivated blasts beginning in august 2009 that targeted key government installations.
Janes Defence Weekly
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