By MICHAEL SCHMIDT and ERIC SCHMITT
BAGHDAD — The Islamic State’s latest suicide attack
in Baghdad, which killed nearly 330 people, foreshadows a long and
bloody insurgency, according to American diplomats and commanders, as
the group reverts to its guerrilla roots because its territory is
shrinking in Iraq and Syria.
Already, officials say, many Islamic State fighters who lost battles in Falluja and Ramadi
have blended back into the largely Sunni civilian populations there,
and are biding their time to conduct future terrorist attacks. And with
few signs that the beleaguered Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi,
can effectively forge an inclusive partnership with Sunnis, many senior
American officials warn that a military victory in the last urban
stronghold of Mosul, which they hope will be achieved by the end of the
year, will not be sufficient to stave off a lethal insurgency.
Ranchers
near the Mexican border see smugglers and sometimes find bodies, but
they favor a different approach to illegal immigration from Donald J.
Trump’s wall.
By
DAN BARRY
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