Meanwhile in Iraq: Showdown for the al-Maliki Government?

The New York Times reports:

Up to 35 officials in the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior ranking as high as general have been arrested over the past three days with some of them accused of quietly working to reconstitute Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party.

Iraqi security officials asserted that those arrested were involved "in the early stages of a coup". Specificially, they were accused of affiliation with Al Awda, an alleged descendant of the Baath Party.

All this may be true but, assuming that all those arrested are Sunni, the Shi'a-led al-Maliki Government now faces a challenge that goes beyond plotters --- both political and military --- in its midst. Arrests in the past have sparked violence and reprisals throughout Iraq. Whether those reprisals occur again, and whether the Government can respond effectively to prevent sectarian conflict, will be a major test of the stability of the "new" Iraq.