Shortly before the American- led invasion of Iraq, Amr Moussa, head of the League of Arab States, warned the attack would “open the gates of hell.” Now, more than three years later, there is a sense around the Middle East that what was once viewed as quintessential regional hyperbole may instead have been darkly prescient. Even before the bombing of one of Shiite Islam’s holiest shrines in the Iraqi city of Samarra set off bloody sectarian fighting last Wednesday, the chaos in Iraq helped to elevate Iran’s regional influence – a great concern to many of the Sunni-led governments around the region – while also giving Al Qaeda sympathizers a new foothold in the region. Full Story