Recently, Sunni extremists have begun a campaign of terror aimed at Iraqi government officials. In the last 48 hours they have launched 10 attacks against government officials (in most instances leaders of Iraq’s police or other security forces). The campaign of attacks was announced on an Islamic website on September 15. The Sunni group said they would begin to the new round of attacks to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Tahseen al-Sheikhly, a spokesman for the Iraqi security force said, “the main reason behind all these attacks is the signs of improvement of the security situation mentioned in the Crocker-Petreus report.” Mr. Sheikhly added, “The terrorist groups are just trying to say to the world that the report did not reflect the reality of the security situation in Iraq.” Later, in an attempt to legitimize what is going on in Iraq Sheikhly said, ““We expect these attacks to increase in the coming days because the terrorists want to tell the world that they still exist although in fact they have failed.” I am not sure how Mr. Sheikhly can say the extremists have failed when the evidence indicates that they are able to kill members of the Iraqi government almost at will.
So, it appears that the terrorists can attack whenever they feel like it. If they do not like a report given in America they have the capability to ramp up the level of attacks. Not only have they shown the ability to attack ordinary civilians in public places, but more ominously they are showing that they can attack and kill government officials. If the insurgents can—after more than four years—launch a systematic campaign to kill leaders of the Iraqi security forces, how can anyone argue that serious progress has been made in Iraq?
