Years of Bombings Have Iraq Changing Baghdad Security

Security Strategy Hasn't Changed Significantly in a Decade

Baghdad has been facing bombings on a near daily basis for many years now, and the rate and severity of those attacks has surged several times. This is one of those times, as the ISIS war is seeing attacks picking up.

Iraq’s Interior Ministry is talking up a revamp of their security procedures now, the first significant change in at least a decade. There’s no denying that the old way wasn’t working, but what’s changing?

Locals say that the old system was to increase security in a neighborhood for a day or two after bombings, “then it’s back to normal and we wait for the next bombing.”

The new system is vaguely defined so far, with the Interior Ministry mostly talking up throwing money at increased police intelligence, and trying to recruit massive numbers of civilian informants among the city’s Sunni minority to “report on suspicious behavior.”

In addition to alienating the Sunnis even more, the policy doesn’t seem to be a move away from the policy of military checkpoints and concrete barriers, just an attempt to try to build a network of informants on top of the existing system.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.