Violence Flares all over Iraq

Suicide bombers, rockets fired into the Green Zone, gunmen spraying automatic weapons fire at civilians, truck bombs - Iraq exploded in violence in the last 24 hours as Shia extremists, al-Qaeda terrorists, and Sunni insurgents all were credited with attacks.

At least 16 separate attacks took place including an artillery barrage from Iran targeting the Kurdish camps the say are sheltering terrorists, and a coordinated operation to destroy a suicide bombing cell carried out by US forces. Four US servicemen died in that operation.

The press reports of these attacks have mostly been confirmed by US military authorities. You can read about them here. (Note: While admittedly an anti-war site, Iraq Today gives links to daily attacks usually without editorial comment. Where there are discrepancies or confusion, it is so noted on the site.)

The enemy does not like it when public opinion about the war begins to change. As this UPI report related late last week, desperation has set in. But as it has, the insurgency changes its character:

Military operations aimed at ejecting them from their strongholds and paralysing their activities are ongoing, Hazim Jawad Yousif, a Baghdad-based security analyst told IRIN, but he warned: “It is like a balloon filled with water. When you press it on one side the water moves to the other.”

“They [militants] will spare no effort to prove that they are still a hardened number in Iraq’s security equation, and that they have the ability to strike anywhere they want with any tool even if it is by using children, women or disabled persons,” Yousif, a retired army major-general, said.

Yousif said militants had now resorted to training women as suicide bombers to penetrate security checkpoints by exploiting Muslim sensitivities which prevent women from being searched by men.

The militants are determined to get their own way and will stop at nothing to achieve their aims: If necessary they will use disabled persons or even children to help launch attacks, he said.

Couple this with the restlessness of the Sunni Awakening militias due to lack of pay and what they see as the US military's disrespect for their efforts and you have a situation that cries out for swift and decisive intervention by both the Iraqi government and the brass.

The situation is not out of hand. But it certainly gives the impression of slowly spinning out of control. The key is to recognize the problems and deal with them now before things really start to go south.