The Common Ills: Iraq continues to unravel

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Iraq continues to unravel

Through Monday, Iraq Body Count counts 684 violent deaths in Iraq so far this month. Today National Iraqi News Agency reports a Muqdadiya mortar attack has left thirteen people injured, a Kirkuk grenade attack claimed the life of 1 Peshmerga, a Kirkuk roadside bombing left one police officer injured, 2 guards were killed in Rashad (and the local council building blown up), and "Gunmen killed a guard and wounded another in Badush prison in western Mosul." All Iraq News adds that an armed attack n a Mosul sheep market left 3 people dead,

Federal News Radio notes, "Hundreds of convicts, including senior members of al Qaeda, broke out of Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail after comrades launched a military-style assault, authorities said on Monday." The Sunday prison news only became news outside of Iraq when the number of prisoners who escaped were announced on Monday.

Alsumaria reports today that al Qaeada in Iraq has issued a statement claiming responsibility for 'invading' the prisons in Abu Ghraib and Taji and breaking down the walls to allow for the release of the prisoners. BBC News adds, "In an online statement, al-Qaeda said Sunday's attack was the final one in a campaign aimed at freeing inmates and targeting justice system officials."

Jane Arraf (Al Jazeera) examines the increase in violence and notes:

Five years after pulling itself out of civil war, the country is again mired in a relentless series of bombings, political assassinations and sectarian attacks that have stalled progress many Iraqis hoped they would achieve.
This year the holy month of Ramadan - when many Muslims fast in the day and gather in mosques, cafés and markets in the evening - has been marked by almost daily attacks on a widening range of targets.
Almost 600 people have been killed so far in July, most of them civilians. This month's toll follows a grim landmark in May when the UN reported at least 963 civilians had been killed and more than 2,000 injured in the biggest monthly casualty toll since 2008.

Also exploring the violence today is Michael Crowley (Time magazine) who notes:

The new concern comes at a time when some close observers of Iraq — including two former senior government officials who focused on Iraq and who recently spoke with TIME — say they’re cautiously optimistic that Iraq’s political actors can work together. Recent tensions between Iraqi Kurds and Arabs have cooled of late, for instance. And one of the officials argued that recent provincial-election defeats for Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law Coalition may have chastened a Prime Minister who has ruled with a dangerously heavy hand, infuriating Iraq’s Sunnis by favoring his fellow Shi‘ites.
The growing promise of oil wealth may also be providing an incentive for dueling factions to cooperate, this official says. Iraq plans to boost oil production by nearly one-third over the next year — a boon for the U.S. because Iraq’s oil production counters Iranian crude blocked by sanctions, thereby limiting global price hikes.

It would be wonderful if the provincial election results or anything else could leave an impression on Nouri but that really hasn't been the case in the past. Crowley has a vision of everything suddenly fitting together, even the jagged and violent edges. And maybe that's what's happening. It doesn't look that way to me and, reading Crowley's writing, I'm reminded of the early years of the war when everything was supposed to be a 'turned corner,' when one wave of Operation Happy Talk after another insisted things were changing for the better.

But it never happened.

This could be the time it does, anything can happen. I'm just not seeing it.

The issue of oil? Khalid al-Ansary, Kadhim Ajrash and Nayla Rassouck (Bloomberg News) report, "Iraq’s crude exports and oil revenue declined in June for the second consecutive month because of foul weather at the country’s ports and attacks on northern pipelines, the oil ministry said." By contrast, UPI notes, "Oil flowed from a well in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq at a rate of 25,000 barrels per day, a site record for energy company DNO International." Nouri's chief characteristic is his paranoia. It's closely followed by his urge to be petty.

The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley, Antiwar.com, Black Agenda Report, Ms. magazine's blog, and Pacifica Evening News -- updated last night and this morning: