"This is a political message that says attacking a market is an attempt
to bring back sectarianism," Al Maliki said.
Officials said AQI carried out the car bombing in the market of Batha, a
town in Dhi Qar. They said two Al Qaida operatives, based outside the
province, have been arrested and linked to the car loaded with rockets and
explosives.
The Iraq Army has also been bracing for an AQI resurgence in the Diyala
province. Until 2009, Diyala was used as a launching pad for suicide
bombings in Baghdad.
Amid the redeployment, the U.S. military has also been reducing its
presence in detention camps around Iraq. The military plans to transfer
three detention camps, filled with suspected AQI insurgents, to the Baghdad
government by August 2010.
Officials said AQI as well as other insurgents were accumulating weapons
in what could mark a power struggle in wake of the U.S. withdrawal from
Iraqi cities on June 30. On June 9, the Defense Ministry said Iraq Army troops
found 15 tons of weapons and explosives in a cache in southern Baghdad. This
was believed to have been the largest cache ever found in Iraq.
The Al Maliki government has urged the United States not to accelerate
its withdrawal in 2009 amid the AQI surge. Officials said the U.S. military
must maintain efforts to train and modernize the Iraq Army and security
forces.
"The outcome matters for us Iraqis, for the Americans and for the
region," Iraqi ambassador to the United States, Samir Sumaidei, told the
Washington-based Center for a New American Security. "It is not about the
amount of attention; it is the quality of attention."
