What Is The Islamic State's Iraq Strategy?

Wissm Al-Okili / Reuters

Nancy Youssef, Daily Beast: Behind the Carnage in Iraq: ISIS Intends to Divide and Conquer

At least 150 people were blown up in Iraq’s capital Wednesday as ISIS ratchets up efforts to provoke ethnic cleansing and weaken the overstretched Iraqi security forces.

Baghdad suffered its deadliest day in months during a series of attacks Wednesday. The carnage not only shocked the capital, but also raised questions about whether Iraqi security forces are capable of reclaiming Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, which has been occupied for almost two years by the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

One obvious question is how Iraqi security forces can retake and secure Mosul if they cannot protect Baghdad from three suicide bombings in a matter of hours. But the picture is more complicated, and indeed, more problematic even than that.

The bombings targeted Shia neighborhoods in what appears to be part of the continuing ISIS effort to provoke a frenzy of ethnic cleansing similar to that of a decade ago. As one U.S. official immersed in the anti-ISIS war puts it, “Sunnis see ISIS as their protection—their wall against Shia revenge.”

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WNU Editor: Since the 2006 al-Askari mosque bombing that unleashed the first Iraqi civil war .... Sunni extremists have proven themselves to be very effective in exploiting sectarian splits and animosities. Will they succeed in causing an even further split with their bombing campaign on Shiite communities in Baghdad (and elsewhere) .... if history is any indication the answer will be yes.