Wave of attacks kills at least 70 in Iraq

A wave of car bombs and shootings killed at least 70 people in Shiite and Sunni areas of Iraq today, officials said, escalating fears of a return to widespread sectarian bloodletting in the country.
The attacks, some of which hit market places and crowded bus stops during the morning rush hour, pushed the death toll in Iraq since Wednesday to more than 200.
The bloodshed over the past week has been reminiscent of the retaliatory attacks between Sunnis and Shiites that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-2007.
Tensions have been worsening since Iraq's minority Sunnis began protesting what they say is mistreatment at the hands of the Shiite-led government.

The mass demonstrations, which began in December, have largely been peaceful, but the number of attacks rose sharply after a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest camp in northern Iraq on April 23.
Iraq's Shiite majority, which was oppressed under Saddam Hussein, now controls the levers of power in the country.

Wishing to rebuild the nation rather than revert to open warfare, they have largely restrained their militias over the past five years or so as Sunni extremist groups such as al-Qaeda have targeted them with occasional large-scale attacks.
But the renewed violence in both Shiite and Sunni areas since late last month has fuelled concerns of a return to sectarian warfare.

The worst of today's violence took place in Baghdad, where ten car bombs ripped through open-air markets and other areas of Shiite neighbourhoods, killing at least 46 people and wounding more than 150, police officials said.
In the bloodiest attack, a parked car bomb blew up in a busy market in the northern Shiite neighbourhood of Shaab, killing 13 and wounding 25, police and health officials said.
The surge in bloodshed has exasperated Iraqis, who have lived for years with the fear and uncertainty bred of random violence.