BAGHDAD, (Reuters) – A wave of bombs exploded in markets in mainly Shi’ite neighbourhoods across Baghdad today, killing more than 50 people in the latest attacks to increase fears Iraq risks sliding back into broad sectarian conflict.
While no group claimed today’s blasts, Sunni Muslim Islamist insurgents and al-Qaeda’ s Iraqi wing have increased attacks since the beginning of the year and often target Shi’ite districts to try to trigger wider confrontation.
At least 11 blasts tore into busy markets and shopping areas in districts across the Iraqi capital, including twin bombs just several hundred meters apart that killed at least 13 people in the Sadr City area, police and hospital officials said.
Bombings on Shi’ite and Sunni mosques, security forces and Sunni tribal leaders over a month-long surge in violence are deepening worries Iraq may tip back into the kind of widescale Shi’ite against Sunni slaughter that killed thousands in 2006-2007.
Tensions between the Shi’ite leadership and the country’s Sunni Muslim minority are at their worst since American troops left in December 2011, and the conflict in Syria is also straining Iraq’s fragile communal balance.
