NY TIMES
First came the suicide attack on the airport in Istanbul. Then came the hours-long hostage standoff in Bangladesh. The latest is that more than 140 people were killed in a bombing Sunday in a middle-class neighborhood in Baghdad.
- The bombing took place shortly after midnight in the middle-class neighborhood of Karrada, a busy area of cafes, shops and hotels. The car bombing came just after the Islamic State took responsibility for a siege in Bangladesh, and it followed an assault in Istanbul.
- These attacks in the past week are being viewed by officials as proof that the Islamic State is becoming a larger, more sophisticated version of its chief rival, Al Qaeda.The slaughter of civilians in Istanbul, Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Baghdad over the past week reveal two possible patterns: that strikes beyond the caliphate's borders are becoming more frequent and are being conducted by gangs of assailants, instead of an individual assailant. As Iraqi forces have won back territory from the Islamic State, the group has reverted to its roots as a guerrilla insurgency.
- Militants are accelerating attacks globally as ISIS suffers setbacks in its strongholds of Iraq and Syria.
- The attack in Bangladesh’s capital that left at least 20 hostages and two police officers dead marks a new capacity for the country’s Islamist militants.
Muslims widely consider Ramadan to be, in part, a time of extra reward for noble acts, but jihadists have used it to inspire more killing. An attack in Saudi Arabia and arrests in Kuwait came amid fears about more violence during Ramadan.
The young men tied to a bloody restaurant siege in Dhaka were products of Bangladesh’s elite.
The young men tied to a bloody restaurant siege in Dhaka were products of Bangladesh’s elite.