MidEast

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Dozens Killed as Syrian Spillover Hits Shiite, Kurdish Areas in Iraq

by TheTower.org Staff |

Sunni jihadists yesterday detonated a series of coordinated car bombs in Shiite neighborhoods across Baghdad, the latest attacks in tit-for-tat violence that has analysts worried the country is slipping back into the all-out sectarian warfare of 2005-2006. At least fifty-four people were killed.

The country’s renewed sectarian violence is in part of a function of spillover from the Syrian conflict:

Iraq’s sectarian balance has come under further pressure from the civil war in neighboring Syria, where mainly Sunni rebels are fighting to topple a leader backed by Shi’ite Iran. Both Sunnis and Shi’ites have crossed into Syria from Iraq to fight on opposite sides of the conflict. Al Qaeda’s Iraqi and Syrian branches merged earlier this year to form the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has claimed responsibility for attacks on both sides of the border.

Syrian spillover is also impacting stability in Iraq’s Kurdish areas. Erbil, the capital city of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, has remained largely insulated from the violence sweeping much of Iraq. The relative calm was shaken on Sunday by explosions and attacks which targeted security services. At least six Kurdish security officials were reportedly killed, as were six attackers.

Again, analysts identified Syria’s multi-dimensional war as a source of the instability:

The attacks came just after the results of the region’s parliamentary elections were announced, but much of the speculation surrounding the motivation for the attack centered on Syria, where Kurdish militias, some of them supported and trained by the security forces in Iraqi Kurdistan, have been fighting against jihadist groups linked to Al Qaeda. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings.

“We all know that Kurdistan is part of an unstable region, and security breaches sometimes happen even in developed countries, and I think that what is happening in Syria has something to do with today’s explosions,” said Shwan Taha, a Kurdish member of Iraq’s Parliament in Baghdad.

[Photo: WORLD NEWS / YouTube]

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