Mass shooting targeting protesters in Iraq kills at least 25 people and wounds 130 more.

Protesters in Iraq. The Hill/Getty.

Gunmen targeted a major protest in Baghdad, Iraq, killing at least 25 people and wounding 130 more. The Hill. Three of the dead were police officers while the rest were protesters, who are protesting against the Iranian government's influence in Iraq. Attacks against these protests are not uncommon as deadly sniper attacks as well as mass stabbings have become common place. Supporters of Shiite clerics, like Muqtada al-Sadr, are suspected to be behind the attacks. 

My Comment:

I haven't talked too much about Iraq's return to violence. As again, this is a Sunni Muslim vs Shia Muslim problem. Though the Iraqi protesters are right that Iran has way too much influence on their country, that alone is not the reason most of these protesters are upset. It's because Iran is a Shiite country and Iraq is majority Sunni. 

This has been the main problem for Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Sectarian violence has consumed the country and most of it was between the Sunnis and Shiites. It was why the post invasion period was such a mess and why ISIS was able to gain so much power, wealth and recruits in such a short time. There is no reason to be surprised that this issue has raised its ugly head yet again. 

That's the main reason I haven't been covering the degrading security situation in Iraq. It's nothing new and would have probably happened no matter what. Sunni and Shia have been at war for centuries now so it is not surprising that it is happening again. 

We can only hope that it doesn't devolve into full scale war. If that happens then we could see more large scale violence and ISIS could use the opportunity to make a comeback. Not only would the security forces be distracted by the Shiites, but they could gain Sunni recruits who may not agree with ISIS but think they are better than the Iranian backed militias. 

Iran's fingerprints are all over these attacks. Iran obviously has a big stake in controlling their western borders and want to make sure that their Shiite proxies are protected. To that end they are using a considerable amount of violence to keep up their influence on Iraq. It's just another awful thing that Iran is doing. 

I have always thought that mass protests were an easy target for gunmen like this and I am surprised that they aren't attacked more often. There was the Charlottesville thing here in America but I'm still not convinced that was an actual attack and not a case of either self defense or spur of the moment descion. An actual organized attack on a protest would give plenty of targets all bunched together with little chance to get away. It's a scary thought but one that I hardly believe nobody else has had...