An al Qaeda in Iraq suicide assault team targeted the provincial headquarters in Diwaniyah today, killing 25 Iraqis and wounding 35 more. The complex attack was carried out by one suicide bomber driving a car and another on foot. They detonated their explosives at a police checkpoint outside of the governor’s compound in the southern Iraqi province, according to Reuters.
Al Qaeda in Iraq has already carried out four other suicide attacks in Iraq in June. The last attack, on June 14, also targeted a provincial center, but in Baqubah in Diyala province in the northeast. A suicide assault team was killed by Iraqi and US troops after the assault team had stormed the compound and taken hostages. Nine people, most of them members of the al Qaeda team, were killed. The Islamic State of Iraq, al Qaeda’s front group, claimed credit for the attack.
The day before, on June 13, a suicide bomber killed three policemen and a civilian in an attack outside a police headquarters in Basrah.
Two of the attacks this month took place in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s home town. On June 6, a suicide bomber killed 12 Iraqis, including four Army officers and five soldiers, in an attack on the Presidential Palaces compound in Tikrit. On June 4, a suicide bomber killed four people, including two policemen, in an attack on a university hospital in the city. Also, 17 people were killed and more than 50 were wounded in a bombing outside a mosque in Tikrit that is visited by government officials.
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2 Comments
This violence is rare in the mostly Shiite city of Diwaniyah, 130 km south of Baghdad and well south of most of the insurgent strongholds… The security situation is worsening in Iraq, ahead of the decision that Iraqi politicians have to take on the extended U.S. troops presence beyond the Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline. Just yesterday, Basra, Dhi Qar, Wasit and Maysan provinces (all in the south, where Shiites are more numerous) voted for a ban on US Forces, who must leave those provinces at the set date. I wonder if those Shiites really prefer to be “overwhelmed” by Sunni extremists rather than having some US soldiers around. be my guest.
There was also the attack on the Salah ad Din PC in March. The Ninewa PC security and defense committee chairman has stated they have intelligence that they have been targeted for attack as well. I recall reading a few articles late last year that the current logic is that AQI is looking to conduct fewer, more high-profile attacks, rather than attempt to sustain consistent and frequent attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces. Maybe the PCs have become their target of choice?