Thursday, July 25, 2013

Forgotten Iraq

Violence grows as political paralysis continues

By Brian Whitaker

"August is still a week away but July has already become the bloodiest month in Iraq so far this year. Yesterday brought at least 14 more deaths to add to the toll, including nine officers killed when insurgents attacked a police station near Mosul.

Meanwhile, the mass breakout from Abu Ghraib and Taji prisons – for which al-Qaeda in Iraq has claimed responsibility – has raised fears that hundreds of previously captive fighters will become active again.
Amid political turmoil in Egypt and seemingly endless slaughter in Syria, the deteriorating situation in Iraq is largely ignored by the rest of the world. 

Only a handful of journalists from the international media remain based in Baghdad and the security situation restricts their ability to travel around the country. Media coverage, such as it is, relates mainly to the growing violence but, because of events in neighbouring Syria, even this month’s death toll of well over 600 in Iraq has caused less alarm than it should.

Although this is still well below the peaks reached by the insurgency in 2006-2007, there was a period around 2009 when Iraq’s future looked relatively hopeful. Not any more. “All the trajectories are moving in the opposite direction,” Prashant Rao, AFP’s Baghdad bureau chief, said yesterday during a visit to London.
The problem is not only what’s happening but also what isn’t happening......" 

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