For about US$100 at outlaw workshops, gunmen can get what’s become the tool of choice in Baghdad these days: silencers for pistols and automatic weapons.
At least 12 slayings in Baghdad in the past two weeks have been linked to gangland-style hits using muffled weapons, including an off-duty policeman killed in a drive-by shooting on Monday, officials said.
It’s part of a recent wave of targeted attacks on security officials and government workers that has included established insurgent tactics such as roadside bombings and explosives attached to vehicles. The slayings could be an attempt to further disrupt Iraq’s Shiite leadership after March elections that have still not produced a government.
Pinpoint killings are also nothing new to Iraq. Dozens of people — sometimes more — were gunned down each night at the height of the sectarian bloodbath between majority Shiites and Sunnis from 2006 to 2007.
Silencers on weapons have featured sporadically in attacks and robberies over the years, but the sudden rise in silencer-linked slayings has Iraqi authorities groping for explanations.
There’s the obvious embarrassment that presumed Sunni militants are still able to stalk victims in Baghdad.
However another answer is possible: that security improvements have reached the level that insurgents need to avoid drawing attention to themselves with gunfire and risk capture. Even recent bombings have been conducted by remote-trigger or timer.
A senior Iraqi intelligence officer said it shows the “the insurgents cannot operate like before” and know that security forces are likely to move in quickly at the sound of shots fired. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
However, that does not offset the death toll from an apparent campaign to strike security officials and workers linked to the Shiite-led government.
The list runs from top police and army officers to a maintenance supervisor in the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, according to official reports. Some were targeted by blasts, including a news anchor for state-run Iraqiya TV who was injured on Monday when a bomb planted on his car exploded.
The standout weapon, however, has been a gun fitted with a silencer likely crafted from metal tubes and plastic fittings.
On Sunday, in just a few hours, gunmen using silencers ambushed and killed a police lieutenant-colonel as he drove near a park in Baghdad and then left a police brigadier general dead on the sidewalk near the National Theater in central Baghdad.
Earlier that day, assailants flagged down the car of an employee of Iraq’s Committee on Anti-Corruption on Baghdad’s airport road. He was also shot and killed with silenced weapons, police said, citing witnesses.
The Iraqi intelligence officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, estimated “hundreds of silencers” have been made in the past few months in an apparent shift in insurgent tactics. He said the high number is because the homemade units often fail after a few rounds and must be replaced.
The officer said police plan to show one of the uncovered workshops on state TV next week.
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