A wave of violence in Iraq. Four successive blasts hit the Iraqi city of Kerbala Sunday, killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens more outside a local government building in an attack officials blame on al Qaeda affiliates.
Major General Jeffrey Buchanan in Baghdad was made available to Reuters by the Pentagon.
SOUNDBITE: Major General Jeffrey Buchanan, saying: (English):
"The attacks we saw yesterday in Karbala are a concern.-- although we have not seen any specific claims it looks very much like Al Qaeda in Iraq work. They have employed the same sort of tactics in the past focused in on , in this case a government institution sand Iraq security forces, and used these sam techniques in the past."
Kerbala, a major Shi'ite holy city about 50 miles southwest of Baghdad, has often been attacked in the past by Sunni Islamist insurgents targeting Shi'ite pilgrims who flock to the city's religious sites.
SOUNDBITE: Major General Jeffrey Buchanan, saying: (English):
"There seem to be focused, lately, within the past month increasingly on on trying to increase the sectarian nature of the conflict, to draw your typical Iraq people, regardless of the sect that they come from into a conflict that is about the sect. Now uniformly, the Iraq people have been against that. And, they are determine to take on the terrorists as terrorists rather than identify them as one sect or the other."
Violence in Iraq has eased since the height of sectarian strife in 2006-2007, but insurgents tied to al Qaeda and Shi'ite militias still carry out daily attacks as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw at the end of this year.
Buchanan says this is a key time for the country.
SOUNDBITE: Major General Jeffrey Buchanan, saying: (English):
"They have an opportunity to be an example to other countries around the world on what the growth of democracy can look like when it has never exists before But they are opportunity that have to be taken advantage of /. This is not an end states between the United States and Iraq even if the US military presence in fact ends, operation new dawn will end by the end of the year. But i think this is a transition point."
Buchanan says while Iraq officials have indicated they want to talk about keeping US forces in Iraq beyond the end of the year, no agreement has been reached yet.
Deborah Lutterbeck, Reuters
