Source: Wall Street Journal
Violence in Iraq continues to take on gruesome new dimensions, including the killing of Shiite students grabbed from vehicles on their way to take exams, and the abduction of at least 50 people at bus stations in Baghdad. Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki has declared a state of emergency in the oil-rich southern province of Basra and expects to implement a new security plan for Baghdad.
But the prime minister still hasn't been able to reach consensus among Iraq's ethnic and sectarian parties on candidates for the powerful interior and defense ministers -- posts that must be filled in order for the government to eventually take over security from the U.S.-led coalition. And it remains to be seen when the government will be able to reduce the violence.
Marina S. Ottaway, director of the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, talks with the Online Journal about the rising sectarian and militia violence in Iraq, the new Iraqi government and the U.S.-led coalition's inability to cut the Gordian knot.
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