Baghdad — Militants flew an al-Qaida flag over a Baghdad neighborhood Thursday after killing 16 security officials and burning some of their bodies in a brazen afternoon attack that served as a grim reminder of continued insurgent strength in Iraq’s capital.
It was the bloodiest attack in a day that included the deaths of 23 Iraqi soldiers, policemen and other security forces across the country who were targeted by shootings and roadside bombs.
The mayhem serves as a stark warning that insurgents are trying to make a comeback three months after their two top leaders were killed in an airstrike on their safehouse, and as the U.S. military presence decreases day by day.
The complex attack began when militants struck a checkpoint in the largely Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah, once a stronghold of insurgents that in recent years has become more peaceful. Then the militants set it on fire, burning several of the soldiers’ bodies, according to an army officer who was on patrol in the neighborhood. Minutes later, attackers detonated three roadside bombs nearby.
Hospital, police and military officials all confirmed the death toll.
A large pool of blood and what appeared to be char marks could be seen on the ground near an Iraqi army truck. Authorities immediately sealed off the area. Police and army officials said between 16 and 20 assailants took part in the highly orchestrated attack; all appeared to have escaped.
A day before the Azamiyah attack, Vice President Joe Biden predicted there would not be an extreme outbreak of sectarian violence in Iraq as all but 50,000 U.S. forces leave the country at the end of August. He said the American troops left behind would be more than enough to help Iraqi forces maintain security.
“I can’t guarantee anything, but I’m willing to bet everything that there will be no such explosion,” Biden said on NBC’s “Today” show. He was speaking from Fort Drum in upstate New York where he and his wife were welcoming troops home.
Still, the Obama administration is keeping a wary eye on Iraq’s security. White House officials said Biden is sending two of his top national security advisers to Baghdad this weekend to help push along Iraq’s stalled political process in a sign of impatience and concern that sectarian tensions could escalate as the Americans forces withdraw.
It has been more than four months since Iraq’s March 7 election, with little indication that a government can be formed before the Muslim holiday of Ramadan begins in mid-August and brings a halt to business in much of the Middle East.
As politicians bicker, Iraqis point to such violent attacks as Thursday’s as a clear indication that the terror groups are trying to use the political instability to regroup.
Officials in Azamiyah said the provocative flag-planting and bold attack are part of an attempt by the terror group to once again infiltrate the Sunni neighborhood.
“Al-Qaida is trying their best to return to Iraq or to Azamiyah because they have no existence here now,” said a member of the Azamiyah provincial council, Haitham al-Azami. “Al-Qaida, by this act intends to pretend that they have an existence and to show their muscles.”
The daylight attack was the boldest move by militants since their commando-style assault on the central bank in June that left 26 people dead during morning rush hour. Suicide bombings, roadside bombs and nighttime assassinations have tended to be their pattern of violence.
The Azamiyah blast was the deadliest of a series of attacks around the country, aiming to kill and maim members of Iraq’s security forces who are increasingly taking over security from Americans.
Earlier, a suicide bomber drove a minibus into the main gate of an Iraqi army base near Saddam Hussein’s hometown north of Baghdad, killing four soldiers, said police and hospital officials.
In the western city of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, two roadside bombs targeting Iraqi army patrols killed two soldiers, police and hospital officials in the city said.
In the northern city of Mosul, a bomb attached to a police vehicle killed one policeman and injured two others, a police official said.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
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just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) replies…
"Whereas racist rants were once confined to marginal websites, today many papers — including my own — have opened their online comments section to, well, complete nut-jobs."
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/jul...
AreUNorml (anonymous) says…
sounds like the president is looking for reasons to keep troops on the ground. a huge draw down hurts the hell out of our military industrial complex. with this economy and the looming threat of a double-dip recession, war is quite the job-maker.
Made_in_China (Paul R. Getto) says…
AreUNormal? Good point. The bribe campaign (AKA GW;'s 'surge') seems to be over. Now we are stuck with nation building in a nation that can, it appears, never govern itself. End this folly now and being 'em home. Eventually the arms dealers can find something useful to build, but we have to wean them from endless war first. Oceania and 1984? Anyone? Anyone?
weeslicket (anonymous) says…
war is peace.
freedom is slavery.
ignorance is strength.
thoughtcrimes and memory holes.
Kontum1972 (anonymous) says…
lets nuke the Moon.....then Mars....see if we can wake up the Martians....
riverat (Joe Hyde) says…
In view of our nation's long history of interfering with and disrupting the internal affairs of Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, it is unlikely that any citizens of those countries are seriously concerned about the ever-increasing domestic hardships faced by United States citizens as more of us feel the pain being caused by our long military adventures in that region.
Look at this from their side: In Iran, we deliberately orchestrated the overthrow of that nation's democratically-elected president, then installed a puppet dictator (the Shah) who would do our bidding as a means of mainaining the West's control over Iran's oil field production.
In Iraq, for many years prior to the first Gulf War we eagerly supplied arms and support to Saddam Hussein, who was not a puppet dictator but a lethal dictator nonetheless, one whom we were all too happy to see launch a long and bloody war against resentful Iran (a nation on the cusp of revolting against western imperialism).
In Afghanistan, we have a nation criss-crossed by oil lines built by western nations. Those oil lines are vital to maintaining supplies needed by many surrounding countries. Our fundamental dispute with the Taliban stems from our refusal to pay a transit fee requested by the Taliban, for them allowing an oil pipeline to cross territory under their control. (The imposition of pipeline transit fees is a common practice everywhere.) Also, Afghanistan's most lucrative cash crop is the opium poppy -- but only because the demand for black market opiate derivatives such as morphine and herione lies outside of Afghanistan's national border.
By occupying Iraq and Afghanistan with military forces all we do is perpetuate resentment against the United States, said resentment taking the form of deadly attacks against our soldiers, who they see as "invaders". Despite acknowledging our well-intended wish that their country would hurry up and institute a stable democratic form of government, the basic fact is: they don't want us there.
Iran would rather we not keep our military in their neighborhood. How can they feel any other way? Earlier, we overthrew their democratic government, and that coup resulted in a dictatorship being imposed on the populace. Then by continuing weapons sales we supported Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran.
I would submit that not until we exit Iraq and Afghanistan, and not until the United States issues an official state apology to the people of Iran for the crimes we committed against their country, and ask the people of Iran for their forgiveness and mercy, this bloody business of war will never really end.
lounger (anonymous) says…
Time to leave this Bush intiated quagmire once and for all.
AreUNorml (anonymous) replies…
you've got to get past whether it's a Bush fiasco or an Obama or Clinton fiasco and see the real puppeteers manning the strings. Partisan politics is merely an orchestrated distraction. Open thine eyes and witness the spectacle.