Al-Qaida in Iraq on the rise, officials say

BAGHDAD — The Sunni insurgent group al-Qaida in Iraq has rebounded in strength in recent months and appears to be launching a concerted effort to cripple the Iraqi government as U.S. troops withdraw, Iraqi and American officials say.

The group claimed responsibility for four powerful bombings that targeted five government buildings in Baghdad in August and October — the deadliest attacks directed at the government in more than six years of war. Authorities say al-Qaida in Iraq intends to carry out additional high-profile attacks in the months ahead and is attempting to regain its foothold in former strongholds just outside the capital.

The strategy represents a shift in tactics from the group's efforts to kindle the kind of sectarian violence that brought Iraq to the brink of anarchy in 2007. The group suffered major setbacks after the increase in U.S. troops in Iraq that year, but American and Iraqi officials say that al-Qaida in Iraq has found more recent success by enlisting other groups in an effort aimed at undermining elections scheduled for January and the formation of a new government.

"They're still capable of conducting singular high-profile attacks," Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said. "Those are very difficult to prevent."

What was once a foreign-led terrorist organization is now a mostly Iraqi network of small, roving cells that continue to rely on the flow of fighters and weapons smuggled through the Syrian border, U.S. and Iraqi officials say.