Friday was Iraq’s bloodiest day in more than two months, as suspected Sunni insurgents targeted crowded Shiite areas, bombing a pet market, a vegetable market and a group of taxi vans waiting for passengers returning from prayers.
But while there has been an increase in such deadly attacks in recent weeks, Douglas Ollivant, senior vice president at the global strategic consulting firm Mantid International and a senior fellow in the New America Foundation’s security studies program, emphasized that they are unlikely to escalate into a broader sectarian civil war.
“Until and unless we see the return of Shia militias going out and killing Sunnis in response to al-Qaida attacks, then -- while obviously tragic to those involved -- at the strategic level this is just noise,” he told Trend Lines. Ollivant is also a retired Army officer and former director for Iraq on the National Security Council.