Iraq Hit by Yet Another Wave of Violence
May 20, 2013
A series of explosions rocked central and southern Iraq today, killing at least 100 people. Multiple bombings at bus stations and markets in primarily Shi’ite neighborhoods in Baghdad left dozens of people dead and many others injured. Bombing attacks were also made in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, and in Samarra, north of Baghdad. In a separate incident in western Anbar province, 10 policemen kidnapped on May 18 were found dead today.
The bombing of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra in 2006 triggered massive violence between Sunni and Shi`ite Muslims in Iraq. The same pattern is emerging in 2013, with Sunni and Shi'ite militants bombing each other's mosques. (© Dia Hamid, AFP/Getty Images)
The surge of sectarian tensions over the last 30 days is the worst violence seen in Iraq in five years. Two bombings apparently targeting Sunnis in Iraqi towns near Baghdad left 37 people dead and dozens of others injured on May 17. That same day, some 30 people were killed when two bombs were detonated outside a Sunni mosque in the city of Baqubah, 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Baghdad. On May 16, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shi’ite mosque in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing 8 people.
Security experts suggest that the latest surge in sectarian violence is being carried out be Sunni Islamist insurgents determined to bring down the Shi’ite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The experts have voiced fears that the country could revert back to the levels of sectarian violence last seen in 2005 through 2007.
Additional World Book articles
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- Iraq 2007 (a Back in Time article)
