Violence Returns to Baghdad

After initially abating in the face of increased American troop presence, the bloodletting resumed in Baghdad on Thursday. Twenty-five bodies were found in the streets, in an indication that militia / death squad activity was ticking back upwards. A particularly bloody day in Baghdad ended with a coordinated bombing attack in a crowded Shi’ite marketplace.

Another Shi’ite neighborhood was the target of bombings in the city of Khalis in the explosive Diyala province.

In both instances, attacks were coordinated to inflict maximum civilian casualties. In the Baghdad marketplace, the bombers positioned themselves at either end of a maze of shopping stalls and blew them selves up. Over a hundred were wounded, and hospital officials estimated, based on a crude tally of body parts, that eighty perished.

The attack in Khalis followed the same attack strategy. Fifty-two were killed and eighty more were wounded. The local health center was quickly overwhelmed and ran out of basic supplies.

In both attacks, the bombers struck around 6:00 p.m. on Thursday evening, in crowded marketplaces, as Muslim families hurried to purchase provisions before Friday, the Muslim holy day.

In Tal Afar, after three days of particularly vicious sectarian fighting, the city remained under curfew, patrolled by American forces to keep the sides separated long enough for the currently enflamed passions to cool.

The initial success of the troop build-up was short lived, and we are right back where we started, but now more heavily invested. It is time to accept reality. All the wishful thinking in the world is not going to salvage a hash-mark in the “Win” column for the United States in Iraq’s civil war, and to even pretend its possible is folly pure and simple.

Is this what "Success" looks like?

Revenge for the suicide bombings in Tal Afar two days ago have left scores of Sunni’s dead, after a suicide truck bomber targeted a Shi’ite Mosque by luring victims to the truck under the guise of selling wheat.

Within hours, Sunnis were rounded up and herded into the street, where many were shot in the head. The death squads were the local police. Tal Afar is a mixed city, but the police force is predominantly Shi’ite.

Back in Baghdad, more evidence that the insurgency is adapting to the increased American troop presence is accumulating rapidly.

In the areas that were targeted first for security sweeps by American forces, the bombs are going off again.

And here is a delightful new twist on insurgent tactics…Insurgents are capturing government buildings, like agriculture offices and the like, and blowing them up. This serves a dual purpose – it disrupts government operations at the local level – and it denies the Americans moving into the provinces in the attempt to “clear and hold” positions with too-few troops the opportunity to make a base of operations of the buildings most likely to have reliable water and power.

In light of these events, I’ll be stickin’ by that Bug Hunt assessment for now.

A troubling new trend

Attacks in Baghdad, which initially appeared to abate in the wake of increased American troop presence, have ticked back up in recent days as the dynamic changes and the insurgency adapts their tactics.

In a daring attack west of Baghdad, two suicide truck bombers and about thirty gunmen launched an assault against an American military position. The Americans repelled the attack and killed fifteen of the insurgents, but eight Americans were wounded, and the daring nature of the attack on the post in Garna could signal a troubling new change in tactics. The Iraqis now appear to be willing to go on the offensive and attack positions, engage American forces and fight battles.

Of course this new willingness to attack Americans has not resulted in fewer Iraqi casualties. The slaughter of innocents hasn't really shown any signs of slowing down.

Seventy-seven people died in bomb blasts around Iraq on Tuesday. In a particularly insidious attack in Tal Afar, a suicide truck bomber targeted a Mosque, and lured victims to his truck under the guise of selling wheat; then detonated his charges. It was one of a pair of truck bombings in Tal Afar that killed fifty people, total, and wounded two hundred. The second bomb attack in Tal Afar targeted a used car lot.

The death toll for Tuesday is expected to rise. The attack that targeted the Mosque destroyed twenty homes and shops, and victims were still being pulled from the smouldering rubble.

Tal Afar is a diverse city near the Syrian border, home to Shi’ite, Sunni and Turkmen. Last year, president Bush extolled Tal Afar as an example of the progress the United States was making in the region.

In Ramadi, in al Anbar Province, a suicide bomber detonated a car-bomb outside a restaurant on a major street. Seventeen were killed and thirty-two were wounded in that attack according to a hospital source.