Al Qaeda Group Claims Responsibility for Holiday Fatalities in Iraq

Antenna Audio, Inc./Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Al Qaeda’s main group in Iraq owned up to a series of deadly bombings during last weekend’s Eid al-Adha holiday.

At least 42 people were killed, mostly in and around Baghdad, with more than 120 wounded in what was Iraq’s worst spate of violence in October.

In a message posted on a militant website, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) said that the attacks were directed at the ruling Shiite establishment in retaliation for its oppression of Sunnis, the previous rulers of Iraq.

Specifically, the ISI charged Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s regime of  “a series of immoral and cowardly acts to arrest Sunni women to force their wanted relatives to turn themselves in, or blackmail their parents by fabricating charges against them.”

While the charges can’t be verified, al Qaeda’s mission in Iraq is to create enough sectarian strife to further weaken the central government, which remains in a state of political flux.

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