Posted on 09/10/2009 1:07:46 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Al-Qaeda has staged the majority of violent attacks in Iraq since the end of June, when US troops withdrew from the country's cities, a top US officer said on Thursday.
"In the period that we're looking at right now, post-30 June, I consider most of the attacks, the high-profile attacks that you are seeing and that are getting the publicity, are Al-Qaeda attacks," General Charles Jacoby, the number two ranking US officer in Iraq, told reporters via video link.
The general spoke after at least 22 people were killed and 45 wounded on Thursday when a suicide truck bomber struck a Kurdish village in northern Iraq.
"They're going after targets like civilian population centers where civilians are meeting, where they're conducting their daily lives," Jacoby said.
Al-Qaeda was trying to incite sectarian violence and discredit Iraqi government forces, he said, ..
The general said the Al-Qaeda network in Iraq was "greatly diminished" compared to a few years ago.
"But they are still able to generate these high-profile attacks that we're concerned about," he said.
"I think that Al-Qaeda in Iraq will continue to test the Iraqi security forces," he said, adding Iraqi forces were "up to the test."
The frequency of large-scale attacks has steadily declined and he said it was unclear if Al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups could "sustain this kind of an operational tempo."
The number of violent deaths in Iraq hit a 13-month high in August, raising fresh concerns about stability after the Baghdad government admitted security is worsening.
Asked about a possible accelerated withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, an option mentioned by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in July, Jacoby said it was "too early, really, to say right now whether the operational environment is going to support accelerated troop withdrawals."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Al-Qaeda has staged the majority of violent attacks in Iraq since the end of June, when US troops withdrew from the country's cities, General Charles Jacoby, the number two ranking US officer in Iraq, told reporters via video link. (AFP/File/Toshifumi Kitamura)
Hang tough Iraq!
Iraqi security forces march during a parade to celebrate the withdrawal of U.S. troops, in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad July 1, 2009. REUTERS/Khalid al-Mousuly
I would go further and argue that it is not only al-Qaeda but whether in coordination or separate, Iran, as well.
You argument is ambiguous.
Whether Iran is working in corrdination with al-Qaeda or separately, Iran is a factor in many of those attacks since June.
Clarified enough?
Yes, now it is.
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