Is Baghdad Attack Beginning Of Civil War?
By Sumedha Senanayake NEW YORK, November 29, 2006 (RFE/RL) — On November 23, suspected Sunni insurgents detonated five car bombs and fired mortars into the Shi’ite Baghdad district of Al-Sadr City, killing more than 200 and wounding more than 250. The incident was the deadliest single attack in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The bombing and the subsequent retaliatory attacks have increased the fear among Iraqi and U.S. officials, as well as regular Iraqis, that the cycle of violence may have reached a point of no return. Indeed, the sheer size and brutality of the violence and the language used to describe it by Iraqi officials suggests that the security situation is at a tipping point. Reminiscent Of Samarra The spectacular nature of the Al-Sadr City attack resembles the February bombing of the Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, which led to a wave of sectarian violence in Iraq. The object of the attack on the mosque, one of the most revered Shi’ite shrines, was to aggravate sec
