The intensifying violence in Iraq is "ready to explode" and may re-ignite widespread sectarian strife unless the country's leaders take immediate action, the top United Nations envoy to Iraq warned Thursday amid the latest wave of deadly attacks in the Middle East nation.
Earlier in the day, a wave of bomb attacks in capital Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Mosul killed at least seventeen people and left dozens of others injured. The attacks mainly targeted Shiite neighborhoods in the Iraqi capital.
Separately, the governor of Anbar province reportedly escaped an assassination attempt when bombs exploded near his convoy, injuring four of his bodyguards. This follows a number of bombings in Baghdad on Monday that killed more than 50 people.
Martin Kobler, the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative and head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), strongly condemned the attack against the governor's convoy in a news release issued in Baghdad later on Thursday.
The top UN envoy to Iraq also voiced his dismay at the horrific toll of lives lost following the "new criminal wave of attacks against innocent civilians," particularly targeting the capital.
"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," Kobler stated, reiterating the call he made on the country's leaders earlier this week.
In an exchange of views with European parliamentarians on Wednesday, Kobler had voiced serious concerns over the heightened level of violence in Iraq and the dangers of the country falling back into sectarian strife, if decisive action is not taken by its political leaders.
"The country stands at a crossroads," he stated, calling for a stronger European Union role in dealing with the developments unfolding in the country, and for increased interaction with the Iraqi Council of Representatives.
When compared to the deadly sectarian violence witnessed in 2006 and 2007, violence has dropped across Iraq in recent years. Nevertheless, the country still witnesses frequent militant attacks, mostly sectarian in nature, on a regular basis.
The growing tensions triggered by the continued attacks on Shiites by Sunni and al-Qaeda militants across Iraq in recent months have raised fears of a possible return of the levels of sectarian violence witnessed in 2006 and 2007.
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