AL QAEDA VS. THE SHI'ITES?

4 With al-Qaida Ties Nabbed in Najaf Blast (AP, 8/30/03)

Iraqi police have arrested four men in connection with the bombing of Iraq's holiest Shiite Muslim shrine, and all have links to al-Qaida, a senior police official told The Associated Press on Saturday.

The official, who said the death toll in the bombing had risen to 107, said the four arrested men - two Iraqis and two Saudis - were caught shortly after the car bombing on Friday.

The bombing killed one of the most important Shiite clerics in Iraq, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who had been cooperating with the American occupation force.

The police official, who led the initial investigation and interrogation of the captives, said the prisoners told of other plots to kill political and religious leaders and to damage vital installations such as power plants, water supplies and oil pipelines.

The police official said the men arrested after the attack claimed the recent bombings were designed to keep Iraq in a state of chaos so that police and American forces would be unable to focus attention on the country's porous borders, across which suspected foreign fighters are said to be infiltrating.

It's almost too much to be hoped for that these bombings would be al Qaeda related. What could they achieve other than to turn the Shi'ites against them? This would be the best of all possible outcomes for our purposes and would put enormous pressure on the Iranians who are reportedly holding several al Qaeda prisoners. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 30, 2003 6:46 AM