May: Iraq’s Deadliest Month in Years

Over 1,000 people were killed in Iraq in May, making last month the deadliest the country has seen in years, according to the U.N. The majority of those killed were civilians. The fact that there hasn’t been this kind of violence in Iraq since the sectarian fighting of 2006-2007 suggests another civil war may be on the horizon. Martin Kobler, the U.N.’s Iraq envoy, called the 1,045 civilian and security personnel casualties—compared to April’s 712—”a sad record” and warned that “systemic violence is ready to explode at any moment if all Iraqi leaders do not engage immediately to pull the country out of this mayhem.”