Violence In Iraq Goes Up Despite US Pull Out, As Freed Prisoners Rejoin Militias -- The Telegraph
Violence in Iraq has increased since the US troop withdrawal, as thousands of ex-prisoners held by American forces rejoin insurgent groups such as Al Qaeda.
In a blow to hopes that the pull-out would remove the key catalyst for bloodshed, figures show that death rates have actually gone up since the last American soldier left Iraqi soil in December 2011.
Last year, some 4,570 civilians were killed, compared to 4,147 in 2011, according to the Iraq Body Count, the independent organisation that has analysed death rates in Iraq since the US invasion in 2003.
While the figures are far lower than during the height of Iraq's sectarian war in 2006, when more than 29,000 people died, analysts said they still presented a worrying picture of the country's direction a decade after the US-led invasion.
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My Comment: The chaos in Syria is only inflaming the sectarian tensions in Iraq .... and elsewhere. The Sunni-Shiite conflict has been ongoing for centuries, and with the U.S. no longer in the picture, there is no way to stop these historical animosities and hatreds coming to the forefront.
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