Coordinated Bombings Kill Dozens in Iraq
Feb. 23, 2012
A coordinated wave of car bombings and shootings in Baghdad and across Iraq leave more than 50 people dead and some 200 others wounded. There were nine bombings in Baghdad alone. At one point, multiple gunmen appeared and mowed down commuters at the height of the morning rush hour. Outside the capital, terrorists carried out deadly bombings in the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk and in Salah ad Din province, northwest of Baghdad.
According to Iraqi police, the attacks represent the most widespread operation yet mounted by suspected Sunni insurgents in what officials describe as a “frantic race” to undermine people’s faith in the government. They suggest that al-Qa’ida in Iraq is most likely responsible. The resurgent terrorist organization has in the past carried out similar complex, coordinated operations.
The latest wave of violence in Iraq began after Shi’ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued a warrant for the arrest of Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, the most senior Sunni politician in the Iraqi government. The warrant, on charges that he was financing death squads, was issued the day after the last U.S. troops withdrew in late December 2011. Hashemi, who denies the charges, has avoided arrest by staying in Iraq’s semiautonomous (partially self-governing) Kurdish region in the north.
Additional World Book articles
- Iraq War
- The War in Iraq: the Military Campaign and Aftermath
- The War in Iraq: Shifting Alliances on the World Stage
- Iraq: a Quest for Political Identity in a Second Year of War
- Iraq 2009 (Back in Time article)