In the wake of a series of well-coordinated of car-bombs in Baghdad yesterday, 100 Iraqis were killed and another 570 were wounded.
According to the Iraqi daily Al-Zaman, all these terrorist activities were connected with Iran's Failaq Al-Qods (Al-Qods Brigade, an arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps).
Sources quoted by Al-Zaman accuse a group led by Haj Mahdi Kanani, associated with Failaq Al-Qods, as responsible for firing the missiles into the Green Zone, while another group, led by someone not identified, was responsible for driving the truck bombs into the foreign affairs and finance ministry buildings.
[It is possible that by waging such well-coordinated deadly attacks on Baghdad, Iran was sending a warning to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki not to build his Dawlat Al-Qanun ("state of law") coalition that is meant to be a nationalist and non-sectarian coalition that would exclude Iran's foremost agent in Baghdad, the Supreme Islamic Council.
The Supreme Islamic Council's leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim is currently being treated for cancer in a Tehran hospital.
There may be a second reason for the timing of the attacks on Baghdad: to divert attention from the internal conflicts that arose in Iran following the disputed presidential election.
Iran appears to be signaling to Al-Maliki that it will not hesitate to take whatever measures it deems necessary to maintain its dominating influence on the Iraqi regime.]
Source: Al-Zaman, Iraq, August 19, 2009
