Monday, July 23, 2012

93 Iraqis killed on Monday as Obama abandons Iraq and allows al Qaeda to wreak havoc upon the country

From the AP:
An onslaught of bombings and shootings killed 93 people across Iraq on Monday, officials said, in the nation's deadliest day so far this year.

The attacks come days after the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq declared a new offensive and warned in a statement that the militant group is reorganizing in areas from which it retreated before U.S. troops left the country last December.

Al-Qaida has been seeking to re-assert its might in the security vacuum left by the departing Americans...

The huge death toll Monday and an almost-daily drumbeat of killings last month show al-Qaida [is] fully capable of creating chaos in the foreseeable future...

The blasts... struck mostly at security forces and government offices — two of al-Qaida's favorite targets in Iraq...

The worst attack happened in the town of Taji, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the capital. Police said bombs planted around five houses in the Sunni town exploded an hour after dawn, followed by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives belt in the crowd of police who rushed to help. In all, 41 people were killed, police said.

And in a brazen attack on Iraq's military, three carloads of gunmen pulled up at an army base near the northeast town of town of Udaim and started firing at forces. Thirteen soldiers were killed, and the gunmen escaped before they could be caught, two senior police officials said...

Last weekend, the leader of al-Qaida's affiliate in Iraq - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - warned that the militant network is returning to strongholds from which it was driven from while the American military was here.
Al-Baghdadi also threatened the U.S.: "You will see them [al Qaeda terrorists] at the heart of your country, since our war against you has just started," he said.

As I noted on Sunday:
Last year, President Obama was adamant in his opposition to the idea of leaving behind a residual U.S. force in Iraq while the rest of the troops came home. But many Iraqi's have expressed fears that without a residual U.S. military presense in Iraq, the security gains made in recent years could fall by the wayside.

"The country [Iraq] is still in need [of U.S.] intelligence and military capabilities," Mohammed Salam, a Sunni government employee in Baghdad, said last month [AP]. "The Iraqi government should have kept some several thousands of U.S. troops in order to help Iraq forces maintain a reasonable level of security."

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