Report: Qaida pushing Iraq into civil war
NEW YORK, March 3 (UPI) -- U.S. intelligence agents believe al-Qaida is planning a spectacular attack in Iraq with the goal of pushing the battered nation into a full civil war.
CBS News reports that intelligence sources are calling the feared attack the "big bang" and see it as a follow up to the recent mosque bombing that set off a wave of street violence and religious outrage across Iraq.
Possible attack scenarios include coordinated attacks against multiple targets in Iraq, or a single blow against an unspecified high-profile location, the network said late Thursday.
The United States is concerned that al-Qaida commander Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is betting that the fledgling government in Baghdad would be unable to control rioting and fall apart, knocking the American military back to Square-One in their nation-building exercise.
A collapse of the elected government would conceivably make it easier for Islamic extremists to take control of Iraq.
The attacks, sources said, could also be designed to undermine support for the Iraq conflict in the United States.
The report is the latest in a flurry of new warnings about al-Qaida's intentions, including a concentrated offensive against the oil infrastructure in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, infiltration of the Gaza Strip, and recruitment and training of new terrorists among inmates in Middle Eastern prisons.
CBS News reports that intelligence sources are calling the feared attack the "big bang" and see it as a follow up to the recent mosque bombing that set off a wave of street violence and religious outrage across Iraq.
Possible attack scenarios include coordinated attacks against multiple targets in Iraq, or a single blow against an unspecified high-profile location, the network said late Thursday.
The United States is concerned that al-Qaida commander Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is betting that the fledgling government in Baghdad would be unable to control rioting and fall apart, knocking the American military back to Square-One in their nation-building exercise.
A collapse of the elected government would conceivably make it easier for Islamic extremists to take control of Iraq.
The attacks, sources said, could also be designed to undermine support for the Iraq conflict in the United States.
The report is the latest in a flurry of new warnings about al-Qaida's intentions, including a concentrated offensive against the oil infrastructure in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, infiltration of the Gaza Strip, and recruitment and training of new terrorists among inmates in Middle Eastern prisons.
posted by Marko at 3/03/2006 11:26:00 AM
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