Baghdad blasts are latest in a country where stability remains an illusion | World news. Attacks such as the wave of bombings that have killed at least 72 people in Baghdad have been both dreaded and predicted in Iraq, where appalling savagery continues to be unleashed with numbing frequency. Amid all the talk of security improvements since 2007, officials have had to deal with at least three mass-casualty al-Qaida-inspired "spectaculars" each year. Thursday morning's carnage throughout the capital was undoubtedly the work of Sunni extremists. The Shia militias remain stood down and no other group in Iraq retains the will – or capacity – to wreak such havoc. The attacks were the worst since a string of bombings in August that killed 74 people. But they were merely the latest in a country where stability and plurality remain a bitter illusion. But it is highly unlikely that the plight of Tariq al-Hashimi, the Sunni vice-president accused by the Shia prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, of directing terror plots, has any direct bearing on what happened on Thursday.
Iraqi Letters. Baghdad Burning. Daniel Heyman.
1991 Gulf War.