AL QAEDA OFFENSIVE? SPECTACULAR ATTACKS CONTINUE

S E C R E T BAGHDAD 001280 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/14/2017 TAGS: IZ MOPS PINS PTER SUBJECT: AL QAEDA OFFENSIVE? SPECTACULAR ATTACKS CONTINUE REF: BAGHDAD 1268 Classified By: A/Pol-Mil Counselor Apar Sidhu for reasons 1.4 (b/d) ¶1. (S) At about 1030 this morning a suicide car bomb exploded just south of the Green Zone near the Jadriya Bridge connecting Baghdad's Karkh district to the Karada Peninsula. Press reports are ten dead and fifteen injured. The attack occurred 400 meters west of the actual bridge span and, although a number of cars were destroyed, the bridge appears to have sustained little damage. This attack comes two days after a suicide truck bomb destroyed the al-Sarafiyah Bridge, leaving only eleven remaining bridges to connect east and west Baghdad. ¶2. (S) Less than an hour earlier, a car bomb at a bus station in Karbala killed at least thirty-six people and injured over eighty-five. The attack occurred near the Imam Hussein shrine, one of the most important shrines in Shia Islam and frequent target for Sunni extremists. ¶3. (S) Comment: The week's bridge bombings seem to indicate that Al Qaeda may be broadening its focus to include highly visible strategic infrastructure targets in Baghdad to demonstrate that it can conduct spectacular attacks despite the hardening of market areas and the increased security presence. CROCKER