Page "History of Iraq" Paragraph 45

Reported acts of violence conducted by an uneasy tapestry of independence activists and opponents of foreign domination steadily increased by the end of 2006.

These attacks become predominately aimed at Iraqi collaborators rather than foreign occupation forces.

Violence was conducted by Sunni groups, nationalists and others who sought an Iraq freed from foreign rule that include the Iraq Insurgency, which has been fighting since the initial U. S. invasion of 2003.

Also, criminal elements within Iraq's society seemed to perpetuate violence for their own means and ambitions.

Iraqi nationalist and Ba ' athist elements ( part of the insurgency ) remained committed to expelling U. S. forces and also seemed to attack Shia populations, presumably, due to the Shia parties ' collaboration with Iran and the United States in making war against their own nation.

Further, Islamic Jihadist-of which Al Qaeda in Iraq is a member-continued to use terror and extreme acts of violence against collaborationist populations to advance their religious and political agenda ( s ).

The aims of these attacks were not completely clear, but it was argued in 2006 / 7 that these attacks were aimed at fomenting civil conflict within Iraq to destroy the legitimacy of the newly created collaborationist Iraqi government ( which many of its nationalist critics saw as illegitimate and a product of the U. S. government ) and create an unsustainable position for the U. S. forces within Iraq.

The most widely reported evidence of this argument stemmed from the 23 February 2006 attack on the Al Askari Mosque in Samarra, one of Shi ' ite Islam's holiest sites.

Analysis of the attack suggested that the Mujahideen Shura Council and Al-Qaeda in Iraq were responsible, and that the motivation was to provoke further violence by outraging the Shia population.

The Mujahideen Shura Council was said to have been headed by Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi.

In mid-October 2006, a statement was released, stating that the Mujahideen Shura Council had been disbanded and was replaced by the " Islamic State of Iraq ".

It was formed to resist efforts by the U. S. and Iraqi authorities to win over Sunni supporters of the insurgency.