Baghdad: Iraqi officials say a relentless wave of bombings has rumbled across Baghdad and nearby towns, killing at least 56 people and wounding more than 200.
The more than a dozen attacks on Tuesday — mostly car bombings — highlight increasing sectarian tensions in Iraq a decade after the war began. The attacks came on the eve of the anniversary of the US-led invasion, which started before dawn on March 20, 2003.
One of the deadliest of the attacks hit near a main gate to the heavily-fortified Green Zone, which houses major government offices and the embassies of several countries, including the United States and Britain.
Police and hospital officials provided the casualty toll. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorised to talk to the media.
The latest attacks illustrate the deadly violence that plagues Iraq a decade after the invasion, and come after separate reports published by Britain-based Iraq Body Count and researchers in The Lancet putting the overall death toll from a decade of bloodshed at more than 112,000 civilians.
All of Tuesday’s attacks barring one struck in Shiite neighbourhoods in and around Baghdad during morning rush hour, with security forces stepping up searches at checkpoints and closing off key roads, worsening the capital’s gridlock, an AFP reporter said.
Soldiers and police also established new checkpoints, and unusually, were searching at least some government-marked vehicles that are typically allowed to pass uninspected.
In all, 11 car bombs were set off, including two by suicide attackers, along with one roadside bomb and two gun attacks, officials said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the violence, but Sunni militants often target Shiite civilians and government employees in a bid to destabilise the country.
Violence has spiked ahead of the tenth anniversary, with 87 people killed in the past week, according to an AFP tally based on reports from security and medical officials. Iraqi officials have not announced any ceremonies to mark the anniversary on Wednesday, with events more likely to be held on April 9 to mark the day Baghdad fell.
Unresolved
Launched with the stated goal of wiping out Saddam’s stores of weapons of mass destruction, which were never found, the focus of the divisive war quickly shifted to solidifying Iraq as a Western ally in an unstable region.
Though the war itself was relatively brief — it began on March 20, 2003, Baghdad fell weeks later, and then-US president George W. Bush infamously declared the mission accomplished on May 1 — its aftermath was violent and bloody.
Britain-based Iraq Body Count has said that more than 112,000 civilians have been killed since the 2003 invasion, while a study published in The Lancet put the figure at 116,000 from 2003 up to December 2011, when US forces pulled out.
Violence, which remains high by international standards, was only brought under some measure of control from 2008 onwards, as the American troop “surge” coincided with Sunni tribal militias deciding to side with US forces. But political reconciliation, the strategic goal of the surge, was never fully achieved.
From territorial disputes in the north to questions over the apportioning of the country’s vast energy revenues, a number of high-level problems remain unresolved, while Iraqis still grapple with daily struggles ranging from poor provision of basic services to high levels of unemployment.
Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s erstwhile government partners, meanwhile, have charged him with monopolising power, and little in the way of landmark legislation has been passed in recent years.
Through it all, however, a bright spot has been Iraq’s booming oil sector, which has boosted the government’s coffers and is projected to expand still further.
Since the American withdrawal, Iraq’s military and police are consistently described by Iraqi and American officials as capable of maintaining internal security, but not yet fully able to protect the country’s borders, airspace and maritime territory.
