The spike in violence is raising fears of an all-out sectarian war in Iraq, barely a year and a half after the last US troops left Iraq.
The U.S. death toll in Iraq plunged last month to the lowest level since the war began and the Iraqi death toll also declined in May; Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad about the factors that contribute to those statistics.
Anchor Lisa Mullins reviews some of the other news stories that have been pushed out of the headlines by the two natural disasters in Asia.
The Iraqi government is calling on civilians to evacuate parts of the Sadr City slum in Baghdad
Host Lisa Mullins gets the latest on fighting in the Sadr City area in Baghdad from the BBC's Clive Myrie, as Shiite militias took advantage of a sandstorm that hit the capital yesterday to step-up their attacks.