The World
Insurgents Strike at Baghdad's Heart
Early last week, senior U.S. officials were concerned that something big was brewing in Baghdad. The sense of unease was based less on intelligence than on a sense that insurgents in Iraq remain determined to challenge the Bush administration's contention that its so-called surge plan is at least starting to make Baghdad a little safer. The fears, it turned out, were justified. Insurgents pulled off one of their most daring attacks to date, penetrating multiple layers of tight security and fortifications in Baghdad's Green Zone to detonate a bomb inside the cafeteria for Iraq's parliament. One Sunni legislator was killed, and seven other lawmakers were injured. Further, there was a serious psychological toll since security for the parliamentary session had been stepped up with extra precautions like bomb-sniffing dogs.
For most Iraqis, however, a second attack that occurred the same day is likely to have more lasting consequences. A massive truck bomb knocked down one of the main bridges spanning the Tigris River that runs through the center of the already congested city, sending cars tumbling into the river and killing 11 people.
The spectacular attacks came only one day after Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that the deployments of all U.S. soldiers in Iraq would be extended by an extra three months to a total of 15 months. The move is partly a reflection of how unrealistic the previous rotation schedule had been. But it also highlights how much added strain Bush's surge plan is putting on the overstretched U.S. military.
Signs That Terrorist Networks Regroup
It was a week of bloody mayhem in the Maghreb, as North Africa is known. At least 33 people died in twin bomb attacks against the prime minister's office and a police station in the Algerian capital, Algiers. The deaths-an ominous sign that Algeria's vicious war against Islamist militants, with an estimated 200,000 deaths, was never fully extinguished-were blamed on a shadowy group recently renamed al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The group has launched several attacks in recent months.
The day before the Algiers bombings, in neighboring Morocco, police pinpointed four terrorism suspects in a Casablanca house, causing three of them to flee into a slum neighborhood. They detonated explosives strapped to their bodies. One policeman died, and a fourth suspect was shot while apparently trying to touch off his charge. One of the suspects who died was the brother of a suicide bomber who hit an Internet cafe in the city last month.
The violence in Casablanca came as authorities are trying 50 Islamist suspects alleged to have planned attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Rabat, tourist sites, and a military installation. It also showed that an intense security sweep following suicide bombings in Casablanca in 2003-some 2,000 suspects were arrested-has not been able to root out all of the would-be attackers.
Though Moroccan officials say they know of no international connections to the attacks there, a common worry pervades both countries: Islamist veterans of the anti-U.S. insurgency in Iraq could be returning to North Africa-battle-hardened and better trained to carry the fight back to their home countries.
Asian Rivals Try to Make Nice
The summit was about the future, but the past was on everyone's minds as well. Last week's Tokyo meeting between the leaders of East Asian powerhouses China and Japan was all about setting their critical economic and political relationship on a better footing. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit was presented as an "ice-melting" trip. China is Japan's top trading partner, and Japanese corporations hold major investments in China.
But the two countries have sparred over the history of Japan's World War II-era depredations after it invaded China. Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said the two countries have to "build future-oriented and stable" ties. The Chinese were incensed at Abe's predecessor for visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japanese war-dead, including war criminals. Abe came into office last year pledging to ease recent tensions, and the Chinese have reciprocated. Last week, the two promised to cooperate on denuclearizing North Korea, reducing greenhouse gases, and developing energy sources-a prickly issue involving disputed rights over natural gas fields beneath the East China Sea.
With Kevin Whitelaw, Thomas Omestad and Associated Press
This story appears in the April 23, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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