Al Qaeda in Iraq launches suicide assault in Baghdad

Al Qaeda in Iraq launched a complex attack against the Iraqi government in Baghdad today, killing at least 22 people while targeting the Justice and Interior Ministries. At least three attackers were able to enter the Justice Ministry and fight police before being killed. A suicide bomber detonated outside the Interior Ministry while at least two more car bombs were detonated nearby. Reuters provides some of the details of the attack:

Police said two car bombs exploded in the Alawi district, one of them near the Justice Ministry building, before a suicide car bomber blew himself up near an Interior Ministry office.

A suicide bomber then walked into the Justice Ministry and militants attacked the building, clashing with Iraqi security forces, who eventually regained control.

“I went to the second floor to do something when I heard a big explosion, then a second one,” said Ammar Ghanim, a policeman who was inside the ministry at the time of the attack.

“We heard shooting and a few minutes later three attackers wearing military uniform came up to the second floor and randomly started shooting,” he said. “I got shot in the leg and I am very proud to have killed one of them (the attackers).”

Among the dead were at least 7 policemen and 15 civilians, police and medics said. Three militants were also killed. At least 50 people were wounded.

As we’ve noted for quite some time here at The Long War Journal and Threat Matrix, a once-weakened al Qaeda in Iraq has resurged in Iraq and has extended its reach into neighboring Syria, where the terror group is wielding an effective fighting force (Al Nusrah Front) that has taken control of significant areas in that country.

Although the Obama administration has touted the American withdrawal from Iraq as signifying the end of the conflict, the withdrawal merely indicated an end to overt US involvement. The war in Iraq smolders on, and AQI has spread to neighboring countries, while the organization’s rising influence in the region has in turn helped reseed the terror group in Iraq. The administration’s failure to negotiate a 2011 deal with the Iraqi government that would have allowed the US to maintain a small counterterrorism force in the country has given AQI the time and space to regenerate capacity that was decimated during the ‘surge’ in 2007.

While recent reports indicate that the CIA has been ramping up assistance to Iraqi government counterterrorism forces, the failure of basic US diplomatic engagement with former tribal allies, as well as tepid diplomacy with the Iraqi government (which might otherwise enable both counterterrorism efforts and the sort of brokerage that could help stabilize Iraq’s shaky political structure), cast doubt on the effectiveness of a renewed US push.

Without military forces in Iraq, the US has failed to adequately maintain its vital connection with the Iraqis who dealt a crucial blow to al Qaeda back in 2007: the Sunni (and some Shia) tribes who made up the “Awakening.” Not only could Awakening groups have used American assistance as they continued to press their campaign against al Qaeda after 2011, but they also possess invaluable understanding of the conflict in Syria, as tribes in Anbar and Ninewa provinces stretch across the border through regional confederations.

Finally, Iraq’s current sectarian political crisis has caused Sunni political and clerical leaders to turn much of their attention to a burgeoning conflict with Prime Minister Maliki’s Shia-led government instead of snuffing out the remnants of the al Qaeda organization, which continues to attack both parties. As the war in Syria continues to rage, and al Qaeda wages its successful campaign there under the banner of the Al Nusrah Front, the chances that the terror group could be able to capitalize on Iraq’s political instability grow ominous. Although AQI is still widely disliked in Iraq’s Sunni provinces, its unpopularity there could diminish if the Sunni political struggle with the Maliki government disintegrates into existential, armed conflict.

Bill Ardolino’s forthcoming book Fallujah Awakens: Marines, Sheikhs, and the Battle Against Al Qaeda, which tells the story of the tribal Awakening in 2006-2007 that changed the course of the Iraq War, will be published by Naval Institute Press on May 15. All of the author’s proceeds from the first edition will go to the Semper Fi Fund for injured service members.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.

Tags: , ,

12 Comments

  • UNF says:

    Dear Bills,

    there is no reversing out of historic error. CIA/USA took it best shot in Iraq and failed spectacularly in every critical respect. So IRGC will handle ‘security’ there from now on. Just relax and let the professionals show you how to do it right.

  • mike merlo says:

    Al Qaeda Public Relations once again at work

  • M.H says:

    @UNF,
    I don`t see how the IRGC will handle the situation when there is a high tension in the Anbar province with Al-Maliki. Today strike against the heart of the Iraqi democracy, the ministry of justice, and the last Akashat attack demonstrate a high support from Anbar to AQI. IRGC will only succeed if they have the Sunnis support.

  • mike merlo says:

    @UNF
    spoken like a true amateur. Thanks for sharing

  • UNF says:

    It’s very simple, Mike — instead of enjoying flights of wistful fancy about forever fooling them Injuns with infected horse-blankets, just put yourself in the position of Al-Maliki and think like an Iraqi nationalist; what are your top political priorities?

    Let me suggest:
    1. Pacify sovereign Iraq in[to] one piece.
    2. Secure economic basis.
    3. Develop industry/infrastructure.

    Questions:
    In achieving these goals, please explain
    1. What he needs from USA that cannot be supplied from Iran, Russia or China?
    2. Why he would prefer USA, knowing it is the greatest enemy of his primary goal?

    PS: He is watching as CIA/USA (+vassals) support AQ in attempting to dismember/regime-change Syria — don’t you think he clicks that, if successful, the trick will then be recycled by them, if given half a chance, for the same purpose in his own country?

  • Infidel4LIFE says:

    You don’t have to be a CIA analyst, just go on YouTube to the Sunni jihadist vids and they all say once Assad is done Maliki and Irak are next. Welcome to the New World DISORDER.

  • Infidel4LIFE says:

    @UNF–the time of honoring yourself will soon be at an END. Stugatz..in gool..

  • mike merlo says:

    @UNF
    not only are you an amateur its obvious by your ‘posturing’ you’re also a novice.
    “..just put yourself in the position of Al-Maliki and think like an Iraqi nationalist..,” spoken like a true advocate of sectarian violence &
    absolutist/dictatorial pursuits.
    “Questions:
    In achieving these goals, please explain
    1. What he needs from USA that cannot be supplied from Iran, Russia or China?
    2. Why he would prefer USA, knowing it is the greatest enemy of his primary goal?”
    The fact that you posit these ‘questions’ is indicative of one unfamiliar with the ‘realities’ confronting Iraq.
    “PS: He is watching as CIA/USA (+vassals) support AQ in attempting to dismember/regime-change Syria — don’t you think he clicks that, if successful, the trick will then be recycled by them, if given half a chance, for the same purpose in his own country?”
    How quaint. It is this very infantile tripe that Muslims have been ‘force fed’ by those in power to convince those that they control that without being subject to the tyrannical forces imposed upon them a life of slavery & servitude await them. What a joke. Go back to your conspiratorial crystal ball & blowing smoke.

  • M.H says:

    UNF,
    What he needs from USA that cannot be supplied from Iran, Russia or China?
    Democracy.

  • UNF says:

    FYI, Mike, clichéed ad homs do not an argument make, but if that is how you must console yourself … by all means, carry on “;0))

    M.H., if by ‘Democracy’ you mean practical sociocide, the Iraqis have had more than their fill of your ‘export version’, which is why they accelerated your irrevocable expulsion.

  • UNF says:

    FYI, Mike, clichéed ad homs do not an argument make, but if that is how you must console yourself … by all means, carry on

  • mike merlo says:

    @UNF
    as opposed to what? Your conspiratorial drivel & inability to grasp reality?

Iraq

Islamic state

Syria

Aqap

Al shabaab

Boko Haram

Isis