No signs of peace in Iraq

The story “500 escape in assault on Iraq prisons” (July 23) shows that there are no signs of peace returning to Iraq though most of the foreign combat troops have left the country, leaving the affairs of law and order to Iraqi army and police forces. Bomb blasts on the roadside cafes and inside mosques at a regular interval are killing innocent Iraqi citizens by the dozens every month. The lack of trust among the various religious sects and the intensity of hatred toward each other become evident in such attacks perpetrated by suicide bombers. To make things worse, the Al-Qaeda operatives are still present on Iraqi soil planning and plotting terror attacks on the opponents showing no respite.
In a latest show of brazen assault the Al-Qaeda on Tuesday carried out simultaneous raids on two Iraqi prisons, including the infamous Abu Ghraib jail, and set free more than 500 inmates. In a statement shortly after the breakout the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, formed earlier this year through a merger of Al-Qaeda’s affiliates in Syria and Iraq, claimed it had stormed Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib jail and another, some 20 km north of the capital. The group stated that it had deployed suicide attackers with rockets and 12 car bombs and in the process killed 120 Iraqi guards.
It appears the attacks on the prisons were masterminded by the leader of Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi branch, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who had launched a campaign to free imprisoned members. The latest prison breakout would only boost their morale and encourage carrying out similar raids on other prisons in the country.
Amidst all the blood spilling in internecine violence in Iraq, the question that looms in the background is how long it will take to achieve the target of Iraq invasion that toppled the despotic leader Saddam Hussein. The invasion has officially come to an end but the war in small doses continues to rage in street corners, mosques and village markets. — Naser Mullah, Riyadh