Iraq: Al-Qaeda Declares New Offensive as Sectarian Violence Kills More than 100

A staggering wave of coordinated bombings and attacks swept across 15 Iraqi cities on Monday, killing more than 100 people.

Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq announced this weekend that the group was launching a new offensive. Correspondent Jane Arraf says the attacks demonstrate al-Qaeda’s durability.

“The sheer scope of it was staggering,” Arraf says. “This was really a wake-up call for a lot of people.”

Arraf says many Iraqis fear a return to sectarian strife.

“After everything it took to drive back al-Qaeda, when the Sunni tribes aligned with American forces and fought against al-Qaeda …it could be slipping backwards again and they could be re-emerging.”

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Aaron Schacter: I’m Aaron Schacter, this is The World. When US forces withdrew from Iraq, there were predictions that the country would slide back into civil war. Those predictions didn’t pan out, though today they looked as if they might. A series of coordinated assaults hit at least fifteen cities and killed at least one hundred seven people. Correspondent Jane Araf is in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil. She says today seems like a turning point in Iraq.

Jane Araf: The sheer scope of it was staggering. There were dozens of attacks and the deadliest death toll, the highest death toll, believed to be since the American forces left. This was really a wakeup call for a lot of people.

Schacter: Has anyone claimed responsibility yet?

Araf: Not yet. It generally takes a couple of days but it certainly aligned with statements by the Islamic state of Iraq, which is an Al-Qaeda umbrella group. They put out a statement just on Saturday saying that they were launching a new offensive, and they essentially said that this was marking the start of a new campaign.

Schacter: What are they hoping to accomplish by these attacks? Is there a stated goal, or goals?

Araf: There are a couple of goals. They want to drive Iraq back into sectarian war, or civil war. They’re pretty open about that. The other goal is, as the name implies, they want to declare, actually want to run an Islamic state in Iraq. They believe that Baghdad will be one of the capitols.

Schacter: The scope of the attacks today, as you mentioned, was quite staggering. I wonder what this suggests about Iraq’s ability, the current government’s ability to protect itself and its people?

Araf: You can’t really have the organization, the skills, or the manpower to set off this number of bombs without having some support. And that’s really what a lot of people are worried about. That after everything it took to drive back Al-Qaeda, when the Sunni tribes aligned with American forces and fought against Al-Qaeda that it could be slipping backwards again and they could be reemerging in some of these areas.

Schacter: Now as we’re speaking to you, you are in the Kurdish part of Iraq and that has historically been relatively stable. Is that still true today?

Araf: It’s extremely stable, but the lines here are very finely drawn. It’s not too far from Kirkuk and Kirkuk is of course, where a lot of those attacks took place today. They were bombings aimed at police patrols in Kirkuk, which is less than about an hour from here. Kirkuk of course is that city in the oil fields which is claimed by both the Kurds and the central government, so the backdrop to some of this violence is the political turmoil that’s going on here between the Kurds and the Arabs, and between the Shiites and the Sunnis, and all different kinds of layering of conflict going on.

Schacter: Now Jane, today the Iraqi government reversed itself and agreed to let Syrian refugees into the country, which I have to imagine is a welcome relief for the Syrians. They had already let Iraqis who had fled Iraq into Syria come back. I wonder if there is a concern that the border might be open to fighters going back and forth?

Araf: Well that was the original concern that led the Iraqi government to say it wouldn’t let in Syrian refugees. Now, it was kind of an untenable position because Syria was the country that more than a million Iraqis took refuge in after 2003 and during the sectarian war, and you’re absolutely right. The worry really is that it’s not just families coming across, that because of those porous borders, it could be fighters coming back again and restarting the violence that Iraq has just emerged from.

Schacter: Is there any concern do you think on Syria’s part that fighters are now going the other way? That Iraqis and perhaps even Kurdish fighters are going into Syria to fight the regime there?

Araf: Absolutely. The Syrian government has actually accused Iraq of allowing fighters to go back into Syria. And Iraq is now worried that as Al-Qaeda moves, and moves across that border, if the borders fall, they could come back again. What it’s worried about more than anything is a Syria that is breaking up, the borders being a free-for all, and violence starting again around the edges and creeping back into Iraq from Syria.

Schacter: Correspondent Jane Araf reports from Iraq for the Christian Science Monitor and Al Jazeera International. She joined us from northern Iraq in the city of Arbil in the Kurdish part of Iraq. Jane, thank you so much.

Araf: Thank you so much.

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