We've seen how bad things have been going in Afghanistan because the media has shifted away from Iraq. Well, the shift will move back to Iraq after today:
A series of attacks in Baghdad and other cities across Iraq on Monday struck police and army checkpoints, as well as markets, a mayor’s office and a textile factory. The violence appeared to be a coordinated rebuttal of assertions by Iraqi and American commanders that Al Qaeda in Iraq and other extremist groups had suffered debilitating blows in recent weeks.
The attacks, which killed at least 95 people and wounded hundreds more, occurred amid a protracted dispute over the results of the country’s election more than two months ago. Even as the violence continued to unfold across the country through the day, officials blamed the political impasse for creating a security vacuum that extremists hoped to exploit. There were no immediate claims of responsibility.
One of Iraq’s two vice presidents, Adel Abdul Mahdi, called for speeding the formation of a new government to prevent “any attempt by terrorist gangs to use the circumstances in the country to hurt the Iraqi people and the armed forces.”
A member of the departing Parliament’s security committee, Bahaa al-Araji, pointedly blamed the security forces for unclear loyalties and “the arrogance that inflicted the generals” because of improved security that, he emphasized, the American military had achieved and Iraq’s military was squandering. “The top military leaders are preoccupied with the political situation,” he said in a telephone interview. “Each is affiliated to a party or a bloc, and some have participated in the election, and so their priority is no longer security.”
The attacks began as the nightly curfew lifted in Baghdad at 5 a.m. and continued relentlessly through the day. Gunmen, dressed as municipal street cleaners, ambushed 10 police and army checkpoints across the city, killing as many as 9 soldiers and officers and wounding two dozen, according to officials...read on
The attacks reaffirmed the continuing vigor of the insurgency after government forces dealt a series of blows to al Qaeda's network in recent weeks, including an April raid that killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.
Overall violence in Iraq has subsided sharply since the height of sectarian warfare in 2006-07, but the March election has fueled tensions again.
