Al Qaeda in Iraq claims attacks in Baghdad

Al Qaeda in Iraq took credit for the series of attacks yesterday in Baghdad, Anbar, Babil, and Ninewa provinces that killed more than 60 people. The attacks included suicide bombers, car bombs, IEDs, and armed assaults.

The Iraqi terror group claimed the attacks in a statement that was released yesterday and was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group. The statement was addressed to Iraq’s “Justice Minister of the Safavid [Iranian] government.” AQI claimed that attack was “in response to the execution of the Sunni detainees.”

“[W]hat reached you on Tuesday is only the first rain, and the first phase, which, Allah permitting, will be followed by revenge for those whom you executed of the monotheists [al Qaeda members],” the AQI statement said.

Al Qaeda in Iraq attacked the Justice Ministry in a suicide assault on March 14, killing 22 people. The terror group claimed credit for the attack in the statement that was released over the weekend.

AQI continues to use the issue of female Sunni prisoners held by government forces (“prisons of the apostates”), as well as al Qaeda’s “Destroying the Walls” campaign, which was announced at the end of July 2012 by Abu Du’a, the Islamic State of Iraq’s emir. In that statement, Abu Du’a said that emphasis would be placed on efforts “to release the Muslim prisoners everywhere.”

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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2 Comments

  • mike merlo says:

    very concerning. Iraqi Security ‘Elements’ still can’t seem to get a ‘firm’ fix on AQ. I wonder how many
    X-Iraqi Baathist are “embedded” in AQ ranks peppered throughout Mesopotamia & the Levant?

  • Hello, with regards to the above comment then it is clear to everyone that terrorism on a major scale entered Iraq once the US led invasion of this nation took place.
    Majority of roads lead to the allies of America within the Gulf. Likewise, the same can be stated about Pakistan and its role in Afghanistan.
    Is anyone seriously going to claim that the crisis in Mali had nothing to do with the events in Libya?
    Destabilization, Islamization and chaos – forty years of meddling in Afghanistan and what?
    Oh well, Christians being persecuted in Libya once more while being cleansed in many parts of Iraq – and the same fate awaits the Christian minority in Syria. Those “Washington bullets” keep on helping who?

Iraq

Islamic state

Syria

Aqap

Al shabaab

Boko Haram

Isis