IRAQ ERUPTS AS PROTESTS TARGET CORRUPTION
Car bombs hit southern region as country’s political stability is threatened
Iraq experienced one of its roughest weekends in recent memory, when protesters angry about government corruption stormed the heavily fortified Green Zone on Saturday and dual car bombs exploded Sunday in southern Iraq, killing at least 31. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombings.
The protesters announced Sunday they would temporarily end their sit-in and started to leave the Green Zone. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had called Sunday for the arrests of protesters who tore down blast walls and infiltrated the Green Zone, filling the parliament building and assaulting Iraqi lawmakers. No one was seriously injured.
The protests, by followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al- Sadr, came two days after a surprise visit to Baghdad by Vice President Biden, who praised the progress Iraqi leaders were making.
The incidents called into question Iraq’s ability to effectively
buffer and contain the Islamic State militant group and raised doubts about the country’s political stability 13 years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Q: HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
A: The protests were the culmination of months of street demonstrations incited by al-Sadr, the popular cleric who launched an uprising in 2004 against U.S. troops in Iraq. The protesters demand an end to government corruption, calling for politically appointed ministers to be replaced with non-partisan technocrats.
Long-simmering sectarian tensions continue to brew since the invasion in 2003, said Steven Cook, a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. Al-Sadr took advantage of political gridlock among the Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish lawmakers, who share power, to forward his own agenda, Cook said.
Q: WHY THIS MATTERS?
A: The U.S. military ousted Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein in 2003 and oversaw the formation of the current government.
The United States wants a stable Iraqi government that will fight the Islamic State, which has taken control of a swath of territory in Iraq and neighboring Syria. Iraqi troops have been fighting the extremists in Mosul and other parts of Iraq.
Baghdad’s unraveling could return the country to the sectarian conflicts that flared this decade, sparking instability in the region and potentially staunching the flow of Iraq’s more than 4 million barrels of oil a day, said Kenneth Pollack, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institute.
“If there’s civil war in Iraq, it could spread: Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia,” he said. “These are scenarios that the United States does not want to see happen.”
Q: HOW CAN THIS IMPACT THE WAR ON THE ISLAMIC STATE?
A: Iraq needs a stable political system in Baghdad to keep troops motivated in places such as Mosul and Anbar province in their fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS.
The military has made strong gains, but the political system is in disarray and could threaten the overall strategy, Pollack said.
As the United States scales back its presence in Iraq, less pressure is put on Iraqi lawmak- ers to work out their differences, he said. “We now have a military campaign that’s doing quite well,” Pollack said. “The problem is the political side of this whole campaign is not making nearly the same progress.”
Q: WHAT’S NEXT?
A: Al-Abadi, prime minister since 2014, will try to find consensus and push through his policies, while al- Sadr will keep looking for an opportunity to project his will. That’s not to mention other powerful factions operating in Baghdad.
The United States might have to deepen its involvement in Iraq’s political process to help stabilize the country, analysts said. Even then, nothing ’s certain.
“We try to fix one problem, and another opens up somewhere else,” Cook said. “It’s (indicative) of a situation that’s crumbling in slow motion.”