Iraqi Terrorists Targeting Polish Troops Ahead of Elections

By Andrew Cochran

Iraqi terrorists are targeting Polish troops there ahead of the national elections in Poland next Sunday, October 21.  The attackers, mostly Shiite at this point, are obviously following the lead of the al Qaeda-linked Madrid train bombers whose March 11, 2004 attack, three days before Spanish presidential elections, killed almost 200 and led to Spain's withdrawal from Iraq.  Today, Shiite terrorists hit two bases used by Polish troops, with one attack killing five civilians, wounding two Polish soldiers, and wounding another 20 civilians.  On Sunday, a little-known Shiite terrorist group claimed responsibility for multiple bomb attacks earlier this month in which the Polish ambassador was wounded.  Poland's commitment of troops in Iraq has become a central issue in the debates, with Donald Tusk, head of the Civic Platform, criticizing any continued deployment of troops there.  Poland participated in the 2003 invasion with the U.S., has about 900 troops there now, and over twenty have been killed in action.  In response to an inquiry from a newspaper in Poland about the issue, I replied, "The terrorist groups in Iraq, Sunni and Shiite, are brilliant at exploiting election and event timetables to embarrass or scare any particular member country of the coalition.  Withdrawing any troops in the face of these attacks would embolden the terrorists, not mollify them, and merely lead to more attacks against Poland and other countries participating in the coalition."

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