Terrorists are trying to undermine the new Iraqi government. Iraqi police say they found the bodies of more than thirty men, including some Iraqi soldiers, shot execution-style.
The government headed by Prime Minister Ibramhim al-Ja’fari was announced in late April; since then, more than four-hundred Iraqis have been killed in terrorist attacks. During her recent visit to Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Prime Minister al-Ja’fari and other Iraqi officials. She said, "Terrorism has to be...fought actively and aggressively because these terrorists are killing innocent Iraqi people":
"I think we are all impressed with the progress Iraqi security forces are making."
Stephen Hadley, U.S. National Security Advisor, says that the violence is "a reaction of the terrorists to the progress that is being made in the political sphere":
"They [the terrorists] obviously oppose that progress. It undermines everything they stand for. And I think what you are seeing is a major effort to derail the new government that has recently been put in place."
According to Laith Kubba, an Iraqi government spokesman, "Iraq has suffered from the spread of criminal networks throughout the country. These criminals are trying to demonstrate and prove that the government is incapable of protecting the people.... They do not hesitate to kill hundreds of Iraqis with no remorse." Mr. Kubba says that the Iraqi government will deal with the terrorists.
To help achieve that goal, more than one-hundred-thousand Iraqi security personnel have been trained and are working with coalition forces. Secretary of State Rice says that the U.S. "promise to the Iraqi leadership is the multinational forces are [in Iraq] to help Iraq defend itself."
The preceding was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States government.
