Clashes in Iraq’s No. 2 City May Trigger Violence Elsewhere

Hundreds of Iraqis demonstrated to protest the cycle of murders and killing recently taking place in Basra.

Late last month, Lt. Col. Kenneth McDonald, the Basra area deputy commander for the corps, was riding in a convoy when his vehicle was hit by an explosively formed penetrator, an advanced IED. McDonald was evacuated to a military hospital in Germany and the corps suspended site visits inside Basra city. Earlier that month, a journalist and an Iraqi interpreter working for CBS News were kidnapped outside the Basra hotel. The Iraqi was freed, but there has been no public word about the journalist.

And just days after McDonald was injured, Col. Qassim Obeid, a commander of the Iraqi provincial police, was killed when gunmen ambushed his convoy and shot him and three of his bodyguards to death on Basra's main street. Around 5,000 Iraqis took to the streets in early March to protest the deteriorating security there.

U.S. News Associate Editor Alex Kingsbury recently returned from a monthlong reporting assignment in Iraq.