The sectarian currents sweeping the Middle East are threatening to tear apart Iraq. A bloody May in which some 1,000 people were killed – a level of violence unseen in Iraq in half a decade – just this Sunday at least 51 people were killed:

Violence has spiked sharply in Iraq in recent months, with the death toll rising to levels not seen since 2008. Nearly 2,000 have been killed since the start of April, including more than 180 this month. The surge in bloodshed accompanies rising sectarian tensions within Iraq and growing concerns that its unrest is being fanned by the Syrian civil war raging next door…

One of the deadliest attacks came in the evening when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a cafe packed with young people in the largely Shiite neighborhood of al-Ameen in southeastern Baghdad. The attack killed 11 and wounded 25, according to police.

Twin suicide bombings claimed 31 more lives on Tuesday in Baghdad. Today a Sunni politician in northern Iraq and four relatives were killed by a suicide bomber.

Sunnis and Shiites inside Iraq are trading tit-for-tat bombings and violence, and have reached out for assistance from across the country’s border. On the Sunni side, a cross-border alliance has formed between Iraqi extremists and elements in the Syrian opposition. On the Shiite side, Iran has long-established networks in the country, and this weekend a Shiite militia attacked an Iranian exile group at a camp outside of Baghdad.

[Photo: s1lang / Flickr]