Another bloody day of attacks was reported across Iraq, as scores were killed in bombings centered around Shi’ite areas of the country, and this summer’s sectarian bloodletting shows no signs of letting up.
The UN has released its estimate on deaths in Iraq for the month of June as 761, somewhat below the May toll of over 1,000, but still well above the toll of April, and the worst June since at least 2008.
The latest round of violence came after a late April military crackdown against Sunni protesters in Hawija. The unrest in many ways is overspill from the Syrian Civil War, with al-Qaeda in Iraq maintaining close ties with Syrian Islamist rebels.
The Iraqi government has been coping with growing opposition to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s centralization efforts. This has sparked major political disputes as well as refueling the insurgency that many Iraqis had hoped was a thing of the past.