The Impending Collapse Of Iraq, In One Chart

Twin bombings killed 27 today in Iraq, the Associated Press reports.

The bombings are part of a trend of instability that has stricken the region since the U.S. withdrawal.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is quick to blame the Syrian Civil War for Iraq's woes, but longstanding and politically exacerbated sectarian divisions have split the country in pieces down religious lines.

"The protracted rise in violence," wrote Lebanon's Daily Star reporters Ammar Karim, Salam Faraj today, "has fuelled fears Iraq is on the brink of plunging back into the brutal Sunni-Shiite sectarian war that plagued it years ago."

Experts are beginning to say the violence is at levels reminiscent of the peak of the brutal sectarian war in 2007.

Approximately 5,500 Iraqis have died from bombings so far this year.

From the Associated Press:

Today's attacks bring the death toll across the country this month to at least 360, according to an Associated Press count. Many deaths may go unreported.

This chart for the rest of 2013 from Reuters shows the trend getting worse at an alarming rate: