From the end of 2007, the level of violence dropped significantly as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sent in the military to crush insurgent groups, starting with Basra in the south and moving up to Nineveh in the north.
After a lull, the bloodshed took off again in 2011. The rate of attacks spiraled especially in the last five months of 2013, with a spate of car bombings that killed hundreds. These attacks have taken place in every province, but are most concentrated in Shia-majority urban centres.
Casualty figures released by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq show that 979 people were killed and another 1,902 injured in October alone. As has consistently been the case over the years, Shia neighbourhoods suffered the biggest proportion of casualties. The figures also included 236 casualties among the Iraqi security forces.
Many experts blame the political situation for the rise in violence.
Nabil Salim, a political science lecturer at Baghdad University, says the attacks are not random, but reflect a desire among various political groupings to gain the upper hand through intimidation.
“Disagreements among political parties about goals and Iraq’s paramount interests have led to the deterioration in security,” he said. “It looks like one side is orchestrating these explosions and working to shift the violence from place to place in order to keep the whole country unstable.”
Although Salim was not specific on which political factions he held responsible, he said foreign powers were also involved.
Shwan Mohammed Taha, who sits on parliament’s defence affairs committee, agreed that political infighting among groups that sought external backing had encouraged foreign interference.
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