Iraq’s Al Qaida plans major assaults in Baghdad to disrupt April 30 elections

Special to WorldTribune.com

BAGHDAD — Al Qaida has moved military operations to Iraq’s capital ahead of parliamentary elections.

Officials said Al Qaida in Iraq was targeting military bases and critical facilities in an attempt to torpedo elections on April 30.

Iraqi soldiers monitor a checkpoint East of Baghdad on Friday. Iraqi forces backed by tanks battled militants in Anbar, where fighting has displaced thousands and sparked warnings of rights abuses and fears the crisis could take weeks to resolve. /Ali Al-Saadi/AFP/Getty Images — Iraqi soldiers monitor a checkpoint East of Baghdad. /Ali Al-Saadi/AFP/Getty Images

They said Al Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was recruiting fighters from such provinces as Anbar, Baghdad and Diyala for massive assaults.

“The armed groups have a plan to target bridges and conduct ambushes day and night,” Iraq Army Maj. Gen. Mohammed Duleimi, commander of the 12th Division, said.

On April 3, ISIL attacked an Army camp in Yusifiya outside Baghdad in one of the biggest Al Qaida operation in years. The Iraqi Interior Ministry said more than 40 ISIL fighters, some of them with machine guns, were killed.

“Iraqi security forces confronted a failed attempt by ISIL gang members to break into a military camp,” the Interior Ministry said.

The ISIL campaign, which resulted in the highest casualty toll since 2008, came amid the Sunni revolt in such Iraqi provinces as Anbar, Nineveh and Saleh Eddin. Despite the deployment of thousands of troops and tribal fighters, the Baghdad government has failed to dislodge ISIL from such
cities as Falluja and Ramadi.

On April 2, a leading Iraqi parliamentarian said Prime Minister Nouri Al
Maliki rejected an assault on Faluja. The parliamentarian, Defense and
Security Committee chairman Hassan Sinead said Al Maliki determined that
many civilians would be killed in any military operation. On April 5, 18
soldiers were killed in an ISIL bombing attack near Faluja.

“The security reality says that Faluja had been hijacked by Al Qaida and
ISIS, which use civilians as human shields,” Sinead said. “So, we do not
want casualties among civilians, and that makes the military leadership work
on plans to avoid civilian deaths.”

Officials said the Al Qaida network intends to maintain suicide car
bombings in Baghdad while mobilizing thousands of fighters to attack the
government and military. They said ISIL, which has demonstrated the
capability to blow up bridges, would also intimidate Sunni candidates and
voters.

“A special security plan has been approved to protect polling stations,”
Duleimi, the army commander, said.

Iraq’s Al Qaida plans major assaults in Baghdad to disrupt April 30 elections, ISIL, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Duleimi, Nouri Al Maliki

Iraq’s Al Qaida plans major assaults in Baghdad to disrupt April 30 elections added by World Tribune on April 6, 2014
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