It is therefore possible that, in a few months' time, we will have a major military clash on our hands, not just the ticking over of long drawn out hostilities as, sadly, is the case even now - the bombs continue to fall periodically - but large-scale bombings within the space of a few weeks.
The group also claimed responsibility for large-scale bombings in Baghdad in August and October.
And several attempts at large-scale bombings like Eric and Dylan attempted have been thwarted.
Although the Real IRA has access to explosives it has yet to carry out large-scale bombings.
The bomber's ability to infiltrate the area near the police academy, a target of past attacks, highlighted the continuing difficulty of preventing large-scale bombings.
There is no pixellation or sanitizing of violence here in Beirut, where I live and where large-scale bombings are becoming routine.
Other experts agreed, saying Sunni extremists — some of whom have returned from Iraq to fight in Syria — also have the expertise to carry out large-scale bombings.
E-mail address GO SIGN UP Share Tweet There is no pixellation or sanitizing of violence here in Beirut, where I live and where large-scale bombings are becoming routine.
For years, Yemen has also endured political instability amid an Arab spring uprising and relentless attacks by al-Qaida militants targeting its military and security forces, which have faced large-scale bombings and suicide attacks and have unsuccessfully battled to rout the militants from strongholds they control in the south and the country's remote hinterland.
Recent large-scale bombings in Damascus can be the work only of the regime (or a nefarious unit within it) or of jihadists who want to attack the "heretical" Alawite minority that dominates the regime and to which Mr Assad belongs.
But "security sources," reports The Guardian, don't think the newer group has the resources to launch what the newspaper calls "large-scale bombings".
