A fresh wave of bomb attacks in Iraq has left some 25 people dead in mainly Shi’ite areas of the capital. A car bomb was planted near a police checkpoint – the blast claimed most of today’s victims. It also left about 60 people wounded. The bloodletting between the different religous groups of Iraq has surged since the bombing of a Shi’ite shrine over a week ago.

Since then a relentless cycle of sectarian reprisals has claimed more than 450 lives and ruined countless others. As the death toll rises, religious representatives of the once dominant Sunni minority are accusing the Shi’ite-led government and US forces of failing to halt attacks. They called on Sunnis to come out and protect their mosques. A curfew over the weekend did briefly dampen the violence – but an order today to deploy tanks to protect threatened areas was not sufficient to halt the seemingly endless revenge killings.

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