The ROP strikes again.
(Telegraph) — Suspected al Qaeda militants unleashed a wave of terror across Baghdad and 11 other Iraqi cities on Thursday, killing at least 60 people in a series of attacks on government buildings, security targets, restaurants and a primary school.
The deadliest violence in more than six weeks renewed fears that Iraq is once again in danger of being engulfed in the sectarian turmoil that nearly tipped it into civil war at the height of the insurgency against US forces in the middle of the previous decade.
The co-ordination and sophistication of the attacks bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group for al Qaeda linked Sunni militants whose resurgence coincided with the withdrawal of the last US troops from the country in December.
Operating with a level of impunity that angered many Iraqis, the militants launched more than 30 attacks across the country. Baghdad bore the brunt of the bloodshed, with a series of shootings and bombings unfolding across the capital for more than four hours on Thursday morning.
Government forces appeared overwhelmed by the relentlessness of the violence, and often they too were the targets, with army checkpoints, police patrols and even the houses of individual officers coming under attack by both bombers and gunmen.