Source: WSJ.com

By: Ali A. Nabhan in Baghdad and Sam Dagher in Beirut

Posted: Feb. 23rd, 2012

A barrage of explosions and drive-by shootings killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds across Iraq on Thursday, in one of the bloodiest episodes to follow the U.S. military withdrawal from the country.

The attacks spanned six provinces, from Nineveh in the north, which borders Syria, to Babylon, south of Baghdad. They targeted security forces, local officials, busy neighborhoods, mosques and vital infrastructure such as telecommunications towers.

The capital, Baghdad, bore the brunt of the early-morning mayhem. Among the fallen were a boy walking to school and office workers eating breakfast at a diner. By nightfall, security officials said at least 70 people had been killed and 374 wounded, with well over half of the casualties in Baghdad.

The renewed violence deals a blow to the Iraqi government’s efforts to put on its best face to host a major Arab summit in Baghdad next month. The government is also seeking to patch up a political crisis that has fanned sectarian tensions by pitting a predominantly Sunni faction of the current coalition government against Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Casting a shadow over Iraq is the bloody standoff in neighboring Syria that has divided the population there along a similar sectarian fault line.

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