A senior U.S. commander said Wednesday that recent attacks in Iraq are the work of groups seeking to sabotage — or gain leverage in — a future independent Iraqi government that is due to take power by July. Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, also predicted that coalition forces would be able to crush the insurgency within a year, despite continued American losses since the Dec. 13 capture of Saddam Hussein. “There are ethnic issues. People are now positioning themselves to see what their role is in the next government, and they are doing it by force,” Odierno said after a tour of this city, Saddam’s hometown. “They are trying to disrupt the way things are going so they can get a little advantage.” On Wednesday, an Iraqi insurgent group claimed responsibility for twin bombings that killed 109 people at the offices of two Kurdish political parties on Sunday. The “Jaish Ansar al-Sunna” said it targeted the “dens of the devils” because of the parties’ ties to the United States. The claim could not be independently confirmed. Full Story
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