Surging Bloodshed Undercut Iraq's Oil-Fueled Economy: Two years after U.S. forces withdrew, almost-daily bombings and suicide attacks scar weddings, funerals and cafes, as al-Qaeda-linked groups attack Shiite targets. The assaults have killed more than 5,000 people this year, levels that haven’t been seen since 2008 and almost double 2010’s toll, according to the United Nations.
Ten car bomb blasts across Baghdad province
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who leads a Shiite-dominated government, blames Sunnis for the violence. Larger forces are at work, with spillover from neighboring Syria, where the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad is a magnet for Sunni extremists funded by Gulf nations intent on reversing Shiite Iran’s influence in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.“Iraq and Syria are the battlefields of a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia,” said Harith HasanMass executions on the rise in Iraq as total breakdown approaches
Iraq executes 42 'terrorists', including woman, as violence worsens:
The U.N. mission in the country said it was concerned about the
executions, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, and repeated its
call for Baghdad to suspend the death penalty.Rights groups say executions have been on the rise in recent years.
Sixty-eight death sentences were carried out in 2011, according to Amnesty International. The 42 hanged this week amounted to almost a third of the total number the campaign group said were executed in all of 2012. More than 6,000 people have been killed in attacks across Iraq so far this year, as Sunni Islamist insurgents including al Qaeda regain momentum.
Sixty-eight death sentences were carried out in 2011, according to Amnesty International. The 42 hanged this week amounted to almost a third of the total number the campaign group said were executed in all of 2012. More than 6,000 people have been killed in attacks across Iraq so far this year, as Sunni Islamist insurgents including al Qaeda regain momentum.
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