Reaction to yesterday’s Baghdad attack

At one time, US officials described Sunni, Al-Qaeda style terrorist groups as public enemy #1 in Iraq but in recent months the US has taken aim at a new #1. the so-called special groups as said to be Iranian-supported militia groups. The shift reflects a sense that the US military and its partners have made progress in defeating the Sunni groups and now Shiite groups backed by Iran are the biggest problem in Iraq. With regard to yesterday’s bombing, the US said it was the dirty work of a particular special group trying to incite sectarian violence. If true, this analyst says the attack was unprecedented. He says he’s never heard of Shiite militia groups targeted Shiite civilians in this way. The special groups as sometimes described as rogue elements of Moqtada al Sadr’s Mehdi Army. But the analyst says the special groups are more like special elements, and not rogue elements. He says as American forces begin to assert themselves more in Shiite parts of Iraq, they’re confronting the special groups more as well.