There's been a massive, well-coordinated, two-hour-long series of attacks throughout Iraq. They were not unexpected, but they weren't expected to happen in such a short period of time.
From the American military to residents here, virtually everyone seemed to expect insurgents to seek to demonstrate their prowess as the United States brings its number of troops below 50,000 here. But the anticipation did little to prepare security forces for the breadth of the assault. Iraqi soldiers and police officers brawled at the site of the biggest bombing in Baghdad, and residents heckled them for their impotence in stopping a blast that cut like a scythe through the neighborhood.
“A bloody day,” Khalil Ahmed, a 30-year-old engineer, said simply, as he stared at the cranes and bulldozers trying to rescue victims buried under the police station.
What does this do to Iraqis? Of course, it makes them angrier at their non-existent government.
The attacks come amid deep popular frustration with the country’s politicians, who have failed to form a government more than five months after elections in March. Shoddy public services, namely electricity, have only sharpened the resentment.
At the scene of the bombing in Baghdad, residents grimly swept up glass from storefronts. Others milled among the dozens of police and army vehicles. No one seemed to express optimism; most said they were bracing for more of the same. “The situation doesn’t let us live our lives here,” said Mahmoud Hussein, a 26-year-old mechanic. “No water, no electricity no security. Every day it gets worse.”...NYT
The Times doesn't take up the growing realization that this may not Al Qaeda at work alone nor that vague group labeled "insurgents." Rather, it may have to do with internal politicking within the unformed government, according to a report in the Guardian.
A senior Iraqi intelligence official raised the possibility that some of the attackers had inside knowledge. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media, said the Baghdad suicide bombing carried the hallmarks of al-Qaida, but said unnamed political factions helped co-ordinate some attacks. He refused to elaborate.
Since Iraq's 7 March elections failed to produce a clear winner, US officials have feared that competing factions could spur widespread violence. Iraqi leaders so far have tried to end the political impasse peacefully.
But US and Iraqi officials, acknowledge growing frustration throughout the nation nearly six months after the vote, say that politically motivated violence could undo security gains made over the past few years.
