For the second time in less than a week, militants loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) umbrella group have seized control of a Baghdad neighborhood, this time Mansur, and have raised the flag of the ISI over the region.
Today’s attack saw at least five policement killed at a checkpoint in the neighborhood in a pre-dawn attack, just one of several attacks across the city which left 53 killed and 123 wounded.
The move seems to be part of a previously unseen strategy by the group, which is linked to the al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) faction. The previous attack, on Thursday, saw the militants kill some 23 security forces in a gunbattle in another Sunni neighborhood before raising their flag.
Elsewhere in Iraq, a triple car bombing attack in Kut left at least 33 people dead and 85 others wounded. So far it is unclear who was responsible for the attacks.
And with that, the myth of petraeus’ surge crumbles …