Iraq's Wave of Bombings

The wave of bombings over the last two days has now hit the holiest Shi‘ite site in Baghdad, the shrine of al-Qazimiyya (also called Al-Qazimayn), the shrine of two of the 12 Imams of Shi‘ism. On top of yesterday's bombings of several Shi‘ite neighborhoods, it's been a grim week and a reversal of the generally improving security situaiton of the past year.

Since this has been a clearly sectarian series of attacks, the assumption is that we are seeing a new vigor in Al-Qa‘ida in Iraq, possibly aimed at taking advantage of the recent decline of enthusiasm in the Sunni Awakening movement, and attempting to revive the bad old days of 2006, when the bombing of another Shi‘ite shrine, the al-‘Askari mosque in Samarra, provoked a sectarian civil war.

The fact that many of those killed yesterday were Iranian pilgrims obviously also complicates the situation.

There is of course the possibility — perhaps we should say the hope — that this will produce a popular backlash among Iraqis who have come to treasure the improved security situation, and not a renewed wave of sectarian vendettas. But it is a reminder that this story is not yet ended, however optimistic things may have seemed of late.