Daragahi: Damascus Bombing Payback from Radical Sunnis

These bombings in Baghdad follow a major such attack in Damascus, Syria, which was probably carried out by radical revivalist Sunnis ("Salafis") to punish the Syrian regime for cracking down on their movements, both into Iraq and between Lebanon and Syria. The Syrian regime, as Borzou Daragahi points out, is also a strong backer of the Shiite Hizbullah militia and at the same time has been negotiating with Israel via Turkey. The Baath leaders of Syria, as secularists from an Alawi (heterodox Shiite) background, were already seen as infidels worthy of death by the radical Sunnis. But this list of charges against them would drive radical Salafis to violence.

Aljzaeera English reports on the Damascus bombing:



Joshua Landis has more.