Iraqi resistance cites Russian expert accusing the US of instigating sectarian bloodshed

Iraqi resistance groups, in the course of their regular daily summary of incidents, (for Tuesday, March 20, under the heading "Baghdad") yesterday cited an interview by the Russian news agency Novosti with a Russian military think-tank official, who said among other things that American "special forces" are instigating Shiite-Sunni fighting in Iraq. The point came up in the course of the following report about a mini-bus bombing:

Bomb rips through Kia passenger bus in Baghdad, as mysterious bombings increase. Russian expert cites US special services as source of sectarian tension in Iraq.

In a dispatch posted at 1:20pm Makkah time Tuesday afternoon, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that a bus carrying civilian passengers exploded in the Baghdad district of al-Karradah according to an announcement by the puppet police.

The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported the source as saying that a bomb went off in a Kia vehicle in a shopping center near the al-Karrahda area, which is predominantly Shi‘i. The source said that two people were killed and four more wounded. The injured were ambulanced to nearby hospitals.

The bombing was one of a growing number of mysterious attacks that have rocked Baghdad on a daily basis, killing or wounding thousands of Iraqis amidst claims that regional powers are attempting to keep sectarian violence raging in the country. Since no groups of the Resistance take responsibility for the mysterious blasts, suspicions are widely expressed that intelligence services are behind the bombing campaign.

Russian geostrategic expert Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov alluded to precisely this reality in an interview with the RIA-Novosti Press Agency correspondents Valery Yarmolenko and Zalina Tsopanova on Monday. Ivashov, who is Vice-President of Russia’s Academy of Geopolitical Problems, reviewed America’s military and political defeat in Iraq and noted the failure of US troops to counter the guerrilla movement, despite America’s advanced technological edge and the primitive armament of the Resistance. Ivashov remarked that, “the only thing that is working is not being done by the US troops but by their special services, namely to organize fighting between Shi‘ah and Sunnis.”

Here is a summary I prepared using a machine translation of the Monday March 19 Novosti article:

Americans suffer military and political defeat in Iraq: Expert

Vice president of the Academy of Geopolitical Affairs Leonid Ivashov said the state of affairs in Iraq demonstrates the military and political defeat of the USA and warned Washington against agression against Iran. He said to put it mildly the Americans' military results are unsatisfactory, in spite of their technological superiority. Regular army units in the south were easily defeated, but it was a different story as soon as they met guerilla resistance in the cities. Pentagon officials looked in Eastern Europe for expertise on what was done against guerilla formations in the WWII period, but this doesn't appear to have helped either. The only thing they are able to do, he said--and not the army but their special services--is to organize fights between Shiites and Sunnis. High-tech weaponery such as electronic spy planes and so on have proven absolutely ineffective. The war has cost over 3000 killed, 24,000 wounded, and will have $500 billion by end 08. Republicans have lost prestige and will lose the White House. EU China India and Russia looking for alternatives to US monopoly on world order. Anti-americanism everywhere, even among allies in Europe, is helping consolidate efforts for a new approach. He said Russia can be one of the leaders of the multipolar world.

Note that Ivashov also "warned [the US] against agression against Iran", but the point isn't elaborated.