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Iraqi Security Forces Cannot Stop Terrorism

Mustafa al-Kadhimi asks how terrorists can operate with such impunity throughout Iraq, given that al-Qaeda is supposedly "besieged," and given the presence of numerous checkpoints throughout the country.
Residents gather at the site of a car bomb attack in the Kamaliya district in Baghdad April 15, 2013. Car bombs and attacks on cities across Iraq, including two blasts at a checkpoint at Baghdad international airport, killed at least 20 people and wounded more than 200 on Monday, police said. The wave of attacks in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Tuz Khurmato and other towns to the north to south, came days before Iraqis vote in provincial elections that will test political stability more than a year after U.S. troops lef
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“250 killed and wounded, 21 car bombs, 49 explosive devices — in seven cities north to south.”

These numbers are no longer shocking in Iraq or anywhere else when reading about Iraq. For the figures that the media circulated last Sunday [April 14] about the carnage that befell Baghdad, Babil, Dhi Qar, Saladin, Anbar, Kirkuk, Diyala and Mosul, all at once, seem to be copied from massacres from the recent and distant past. They are similar in execution and in the size of their losses, even in their targets and the faction that claimed responsiblity: al-Qaeda. They are also comparable in the security authorities’ inability to thwart them.

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