Violence kills dozens across Iraq
Iraqis walk past damaged buildings and burnt out vehicles following a car bomb that exploded the previous day in the commercial centre of the capital Baghdad on May 28, 2013. Violence in Iraq has killed more than 500 people in May, AFP figures showed, as authorities struggled to contain a wave of unrest that has raised fears of new sectarian conflict.
Attacks across Iraq on Sunday killed at least 40 people, according to the Associated Press.
Violence has been on the rise in Iraq in recent weeks, with reports of more bombings and growing outrage among the country's majority Sunnis toward the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
Putting the death toll for Sunday slightly lower at 30 people, Reuters said the majority of the violence targeted Shiite areas. This was corroborated by AP, adding that attack methods "bore the hallmark of al-Qaida in Iraq," i.e., car bombings and suicide missions.
The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 and withdrew in December 2011, leaving behind a fragile government in Baghdad to run a nation torn apart by decades of violence.
The fact that, two years later, violence there is increasing instead of decreasing has the international community worried.
The United Nations' General-Secretary Ban Ki-moon has been "following with concern the unfolding political and security situation in Iraq, including the escalating political tensions and the appalling upsurge of violence that has killed a high number of civilians over the last two months," according to a June 11 statement from his spokesman.
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Iraq since April, with 170 dead so far in June, according to AP.
The US Embassy in Baghdad on Sunday denounced the violence and expressed solidarity for Iraqis "who seek to live in peace and who reject cowardly acts of terrorism such as this," reported AP.