Word: sunni
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...certainly be hoping the security situation improves. There was no let-up in rampant insurgent violence Wednesday, and a bomb that killed seven people and wounded a number of others outside one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines in Karbala may have been a reminder that some among the Sunni insurgents harbor a viciously sectarian agenda that sees naked violence against the Shiite majority as an integral part of destabilizing Iraq's transition. Whether they're attacking Shiite civilians or U.S. troops or Iraqi National Guardsmen, the insurgents have left little doubt that they're going to do their utmost...
...scale of the ongoing carnage represents a Herculean challenge for election organizers: Mortar attacks and car bombings continue almost daily even in and around Baghdad's heavily guarded "Green Zone," which houses government and U.S. headquarters. Plainly, it's not just in the Sunni heartland north of the capital that U.S. forces face an ongoing battle to create an environment safe enough to open polling stations. Indeed, Deputy Chief of U.S. forces in the Middle East Lt. Gen. Lance Smith said Wednesday that the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has claimed responsibility for numerous terror attacks, had relocated...
Whiskey Company faces that stress every day as it patrols the unsettled Sunni triangle. Last Monday, Rapicault and two other men in Whiskey Company died when a suicide bomber rammed their humvee while they were on patrol, raising to nine the number of Whiskey Company Marines killed in action since mid-September. "I'm taking it very hard," says medic Cory McFarland. "But their loss gives us more strength to move on." For many combatants in Iraq, that may be more a wish than a fact...
...security forces show little ability to stand alone against the insurgency any time soon, never mind create the basis of a national army capable of defending the country's borders against foreign attack. And the elections scheduled for January 30 are unlikely to end the insurgency. If the projected Sunni boycott transpires and Shiite religious parties, as expected, dominate at the polls, the conflict may even widen and deepen following the election. The ability of the U.S. to achieve its goals in Iraq may come to depend on achieving a consensus with Iraq's neighbors, and other allies, over...
...nationalist and jihadist leadership had by and large already left the city along with much of their ranks, leaving behind, in classic guerrilla style, a rearguard detail to harass and interdict U.S. forces. The Americans in Fallujah got a taste of what they may confront across Iraq's restive Sunni triangle as the military command attempts to root out the insurgents from their sanctuaries. They are a tenacious enemy who fight as any guerrilla force might--never head on, always from behind or the sides at moments when it's least expected, initiating combat at weak points and then pulling...