Analysis: The Baghdad attacks

As these analyst make clear, this attack in Baghdad, was against the Maliki government and an attempt to manipulate the election. Certainly this is Al Qaeda's modis operendi, but many others have to gain from this happening.

Mosab Jasim, Al Jazeera English producer in Baghdad

In my experience, getting inside the Green Zone to cover media activity is not easy.

First of all, you have to get at least two or three badges that allow you inside. Then, you have to cross through at least two or three security checkpoints, which are at least 600m outside of the Green Zone. At these checkpoints, you get searched, and after you pass through them, you are allowed on to the street that leads to the Green Zone and, from there, there is a final checkpoint and that's when you've finally arrived.

So it would be really difficult to bring in a truck filled with explosives unless it was co-ordinated from inside the Green Zone. Obtaining a badge means you've gone through all the clearance procedures. The bombers who were able to put the truck inside the area of the Green Zone had gone through all the necessary security measures and once they were cleared, they also received the badges which gave them access into the area.

I spoke to our police source in Baghdad and he was telling me that his sources said an attack would occur every three minutes from each other, exactly timed. He said the attacks had nothing to do with sectarian violence, but that they were something very well organised and co-ordinated.

[..]Ahmed Rushdi, Iraqi journalist in Baghdad

The problem with this government is that its only bonus is the security situation, which means a lot worse goes on in Iraq like corruption, insufficient services.

All these issues show the failure of the government but what happened today sends a very clear message regarding the failure of the security situation in Iraq.

No one knows who was behind these attacks, some say they are inside the ruling coalition and they are opponents of al-Maliki [the Iraqi prime minister], saying that the people who led these attacks did so to prove how poor security is in Iraq.

Al-Maliki simply has too many opponents and the Iraqi people are the ones who must suffer from this the most.

via Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Analysis: The Baghdad attacks.

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