Syrian 'Spring' heads to Iraq as resurgent Al Qaeda massacre Iraqi police in border province

The attack detailed below indicates that the dominant role of Jihadists in the Syrian insurgency is having a dangerous effect in Iraq, where Al Qaeda's power had been severely curtailed prior to the eruption of the conflict in Syria.

Al Qaeda has stepped into the rebel vacuum in Syria and positioned itself at the forefront of the forces battling against the Assad regime. In doing so it has gained access to thousands of potential recruits, many of whom may have no previous experience of Jihadism but are who now declaring their allegiance to Al Qaeda. It has also tapped the massive amounts of weapons and ammunition freely available in war torn Syria.

While Iraqi officials have observed large numbers of Sunni insurgents crossing the border to fight alongside the Syrian rebels today's attack might suggest that the Jihadist movement is more powerful than previously thought and may have the capacity to launch large scale attacks in both Iraq and Syria.

Reuters: "Gunmen disguised as police raided checkpoints and homes in western Iraq on Monday, killing at least 27 members of the security forces, in an attack authorities said bore the hallmarks of Al Qaeda.

The attacks in Anbar, once Iraq's most violent province, raise concern that Iraq's branch of Al Qaeda may regain a foothold there after the withdrawal of US troops in December."

 Mohammed Fathi, spokesman for the governor of Anbar province, said the latest attack bore the "fingerprints of Al Qaeda".

A police source, who had been ferrying victims to the hospital morgue, said gunmen dressed in uniforms of the security forces had driven from checkpoint to checkpoint slaughtering police in Haditha, a town 190 kilometres north-west of Baghdad."

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