WASHINGTON - Al-Qaeda may be shifting tactics back to the big, headline grabbing attacks in Iraq that helped plunge the country into chaos, a senior US commander said Monday.
"We have some indicators that they may be planning on executing kind of a large media type event," said Major General John Kelly, commander of the I Marine Expeditionary Force in western Iraq.
Suicide attacks and huge car bombings with large numbers of civilian casualties have long been a signature of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, which has used the tactic to destabilize the country and inflame sectarian divisions.
The bombing of a golden domed Shiite shrine in Samara in February 2006, tipped the country into open sectarian conflict.
Kelly said it was unclear from the intelligence where Al-Qaeda might try to stage the attacks.
But he indicated the threat was aimed at al-Anbar province, a former stronghold until they were evicted last year by an alliance of tribal sheikhs and US forces.
Kelly said it will be more difficult than before for Al-Qaeda to build and move massive bombs around the province.
"The good news is we don't believe they are at liberty to build some of these large bomb-type devices inside the province," Kelly said. "They have to kind of import them in."
"And the longer they travel, with all of the Iraqi army and Iraqi police checkpoints, which are virtually everywhere, the likelihood they will be discovered is pretty high," he said.
jm/ddl
03/10/2008 14:59 GMT