Last week’s bombings in Erbil came as a shock, but hardly a surprise: The autonomous Kurdistan Region is attached to the rest of violent and chaotic Iraq in the south, and the very dangerous and complex civil war in Syria is next-door to the west.
No part of the world is immune to terrorism. It has happened in London, Madrid, New York, and Boston -- places that have larger security budgets and better intelligence means than Erbil.
The Kurdistan Region has been blessed with peace and stability, while the rest of Iraq still continues to be strangled by daily violence that includes kidnappings and car bombs.
Kurdistan's remarkable security can be attributed to various factors. The most important is that Kurdistan is largely ethnically homogeneous so strangers -- particularly citizens from other parts of Iraq – easily stand out. It is hard to move about without being noticed.
The security, including along the volatile southern borders, has been enforced by the Kurds’ own disciplined and war-hardened Peshmarga forces.
Yet, on Sunday, it was the headquarters of the Asayish intelligence services in Erbil that were attacked. Militants exploded at least one car bomb outside the complex checkpoint, before four armed guerrillas tried to storm past the guards. In the end, all six gun- and grenade-wielding attackers were killed; six guards also died.
One could ask why, despite many other soft targets such as ministries and government buildings, the attackers chose to target the Asayish headquarters.
The answer could be that Asayish was attacked for doing too good a job: The agency has defused multiple planned attacks over the past several years. Sunday’s attack was the first in the Kurdistan Region since 2007, when the same Asayish facility was attacked in a similar fashion.
Many potential attackers have been killed by Asayish. Therefore, Sunday’s attack could be revenge against the intelligence service and an attempt to tarnish its good image.
Had Sunday’s attackers succeeded in storming into the building they could have killed many security personnel, including senior officers whose experience and skills have been an important bulwark against past and future attacks.
The attackers failed to break into the complex because security guards outside stopped them with their guns, even before the outer walls.
But in the wake of these attacks the Kurdish government may need to reassess its security and intelligence mechanism.
For instance, Sulaimani and Erbil have different rules for allowing visitors from the rest of Iraq into the autonomous region.
Checkpoints leading into Erbil and Duhok are strict and the rules of entry are rigid, while Sulaimani province is more lax, opening a sort of backdoor into Kurdistan.
There must be one policy and an integrated system of running checkpoints across all the three provinces.
Also, more human resources and intelligence collection may be needed in areas that separate the Kurdistan Region from the rest of Iraq.
But among things that must happen, there is one important thing that should not: Such attacks should never be used as an excuse for an indiscriminate punishment of people and suspects.
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