Iraq: Three Suicide Bomb Attacks Kill 33 Ahead Of Election

Today, in the central city of Baquba at least 33 people have been killed and 55 seriously wounded after three coordinated suicide bomb attacks. The attackers targeted a government building, then a nearby traffic intersection and later the hospital where the wounded were taken for emergency treatments. The city of Baquba is the capital of Diyala province and was a strong hold of the Sunni insurgency after the 2003 US invasion.

The massive coordinated suicide attacks took  place just a few days before Iraq’s parliamentary elections, and are a sign of the extreme volatility of the security situation in Iraq. Iraqis are going to the polls on Sunday, March 7 to elect a new parliament. This is only the second legislative election in Iraq since the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003, and it is a critical test for Iraq’s fragile democratic process.

Iraq’s National Security Adviser, Safa Hussein, told the AFP last Sunday that security forces had prevented more than 10 major vehicle attacks in the past month which Safa Hussein attributed to al-Qaeda and “other rebel groups”. Safa Hussein said those bombs would have caused “major damage” and were primarily targeting Baghdad.

“Al-Qaeda attacks are the most direct and serious security threats. Al-Qaeda will try to target the whole election process, but we do think it doesn’t have the capacity to reach its goals,” Safa Hussein told the AFP last Sunday.

Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi last month called Sunday’s election a “political crime plotted by Shia-Muslims”. Al-Qaeda members are Sunni fundamentalists and they regard Shia-Muslims as apostates. A total of 352 Iraqis were killed in Iraq during the month of February.

Sunday’s legislative election is critical for Washington to meet its deadline of a complete US military withdrawal by the end of 2011. If violence keeps flaring in Iraq, and if the election are contested by some groups after the polls result, Washington might have to reconsidered the time table for the withdrawal, which would constitute a big problem for the Obama administration domestically ahead of the 2012 Presidential election.

Editor’s Note: Please follow The News Junkie Post on Twitter.

Share

One Response to Iraq: Three Suicide Bomb Attacks Kill 33 Ahead Of Election

You must be logged in to post a comment Login