Reuters:
It was a brazen, complex attack worthy of Iraq’s al-Qaida at its peak. Two bombs minutes apart killed, maimed and distracted while a team of suicide attackers blasted into a Baghdad police base to try to free jailed insurgents.
Tuesday’s high-profile assault on a anti-terrorism police unit in Baghdad was the latest in a drive by the Islamic State of Iraq, al-Qaida local affiliate, to make good on a pledge to win back ground lost in its war with American troops – its leader has even threatened to strike at the United States.
Insurgents ultimately failed to free their prisoners, but the intended message was clear: we’re back.
With Sunni Muslim militants trickling into neighboring Syria to battle Syrian President Bashar Assad, security experts say al-Qaida is reaping funds, recruits and better morale on both sides of the border, reinvigorating it after years of losses against US forces and their Iraqi allies.
Islamic State of Iraq and other Sunni militant groups hate Assad’s minority Alawite sect, a distant offshoot of Shi’ite Islam, which they see as a heretical oppressor of Sunnis.
Hostile to Shi’ites in general, they also oppose the Shi’ite-led government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Iran, the major Shi’ite power in the region, is a firm ally of Assad and wields great influence in Baghdad.
Al-Qaida appears to be exploiting Sunni-Shi’ite tensions fueled by the increasingly sectarian conflict in Syria. Many Sunnis in Iraq are already disgruntled with what they see as Maliki’s determination to minimize their share in power.
“The Syrian crisis is a venue in which an Iraqi-dominated al-Qaida branch is better able to attract fighters and resources to its cause,” said Ramzi Mardini, an analyst with the Institute for the Study of War in Washington. “This may be a revival of confidence on the part of Sunni extremists.”
