Al Qaeda Bombings In Iraq Kill 500+

Yesterday's horrific bombings in Northern Iraq have killed upwards of 500 people. Expect people to claim that the attack is a sign that the surge isn't working, which is precisely why al Qaeda would attempt spectacular attacks - precisely for media consumption, not necessarily because al Qaeda is winning. It's all about perceptions, and al Qaeda knows that these kinds of attacks are good at swaying the media elites, especially in the US.

The death toll in the suicide bombings Tuesday in northern Iraq has risen to at least 500, local officials in Nineveh province said Wednesday.

Iraqi Army and Mosul police sources earlier put the number at 260, but said it was likely to rise. 320 were reported wounded.

The Tuesday truck bombs that targeted the villages of Qahtaniya, al-Jazeera and Tal Uzair, in northern Iraq near the border with Syria, were a "trademark al Qaeda event" designed to sway U.S. public opinion against the war, a U.S. general said Wednesday.

The attacks, targeting Kurdish villages of the Yazidi religious minority, were attempts to "break the will" of the American people and show that the U.S. troop escalation -- the "surge" -- is failing, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon said.

The bombings highlight the kind of sectarian tensions the troop surge was designed to stop.

Al Qaeda in Iraq is predominantly Sunni, and Mixon said members of the Yazidi religious minority have received threatening letters, called "night letters," telling them "to leave because they are infidels."

The bombings were conducted against the Yezidi, a religious offshoot of Islam that is a mix of different theologies and beliefs. Islamists don't consider them to be true Muslims, so they're fair game.

As for the current military thinking, General Petraeus thinks that some units may be able to be redeployed to other parts of the country as the situation stabilizes in some regions. This is a situation that has to be constantly monitored, since al Qaeda may just as easily slip by and attempt to reassert itself in areas left by US forces. Whack-a-mole comes to mind.