Al Qaeda continues its genocidal war against non combatants in Iraq

Times:

In one of the deadliest insurgent attacks since 2003, three car bombs ripped through the Baghdad Shia slum of Sadr City yesterday, killing at least 160 people and wounding 238.

The assault, most likely carried out by al-Qaeda, targeted crowded market areas and appeared designed to push Iraq into all-out civil war. The Government immediately declared an indefinite curfew in Baghdad and closed the airport to all commercial flights.

As furious Shias responded to the devastation with a barrage of mortars aimed at Sunni areas, President Talabani — a Kurd — broadcast a national appeal for calm, accompanied by the Sunni Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi, and the Shia leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim. The three men pleaded for an end to sectarian killings.

...

“It is clear al-Qaeda did this. It is their way to attack innocent people. There are no governmental buildings, no army bases, no security forces attacked. The victims were only innocent civilians,” Abdul Karim Khalaf, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said. “These attacks aim to destroy Iraq and the political process.”

Al-Qaeda is also blamed for the February 2006 bombing of a Shia shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad, that provoked Iraq’s current wave of tit-for-tat Sunni-Shia violence.

Mr Khalaf said that police had arrested a fourth bomber who was about to blow up his car in Sadr City.

The attackers detonated their vehicles at 15-minute intervals just after 3pm, shattering the Jamila market, al-Hay market and al-Shahidein Square in Sadr City. At about the same time, mortar rounds struck the neighbourhood. As columns of black smoke filled the sky, armed Shia militiamen marched through the blood-stained streets, cursing Sunni Muslims and firing pistols and Kalashnikovs in the air.

...

A government official voiced concern that the bloodshed in Sadr City might delay a critical reconciliation conference next week that aims to bring insurgents unconnected to al-Qaeda into the political process.

...

It is very possible that the conference was a triggering event for the al Qaeda attacks. Since a successful conference on reconcilliation would defeat their strategy of of provoking violence between the Shia and Sunnis they have every incentive to do what they can to destroy the conference before it gets started. This is similar to the series of attacks used by Hamas and other Palestinian death cults whenever a peace conference on the Middle East is proposed.

Al Qaeda's long term strategy is to provoke the Shia into a genocidal war against the Sunnis in hopes that the Sunni states will come to their rescue. While they have provoked Sunni retaliation,, it has not been enough to achieve their long term strategy. If the Iraqis want to really drive al Qaeda crazy they should go ahead with the conference and reach some agreement where all oppose al Qaeda.